Park under fire for violating neutrality in election
New Politics Alliance for Democracy Chairman Rep. Moon Jae-in, left, speaks to party floor leader Rep. Woo Yoon-keun during an NPAD Supreme Council meeting at the National Assembly, Wednesday. / Yonhap
By Kang Seung-woo
President Park Geun-hye is under attack from the opposition for allegedly meddling in the by-elections through comments in her Tuesday statement about the ongoing graft scandal.
Cheong Wa Dae rejected the accusations, saying that the President just delivered a position on a pending issue.
While expressing regret over the resignation of Prime Minister Lee Wan-koo, Park also raised questions about two special pardons granted for Sung Woan-jong, carried out under the Roh Moo-hyun administration. Sung, the deceased chairman of Keangnam Enterprises, is at the center of the nation-rocking corruption scandal.
Currently, the pardons have emerged as a hot-button issue at the National Assembly, as the rival parties are engaged in a blame game over who wielded leverage on Sung’s special pardons in 2005 and 2007.
Park’s reference to the issue of the special pardons is seen as a counterpunch to NPAD Chairman Moon Jae-in and the main opposition party a day before the by-elections. Moon served as the senior presidential secretary for civil affairs and presidential chief of staff for the Roh government.
“The President is trying to water down the scandal and took sides with the ruling party involved in political warfare,” Moon told reporters on Tuesday.
“Her remarks were an indirect vote-getting move for the ruling party, and violated the principle for the president’s political neutrality in elections.”
Sim Sang-jeung, the Justice Party’s floor leader, also criticized Park Tuesday for her “de facto“ meddling in the by-elections.
“The people may have felt betrayed by President Park’s electioneering-like remarks,” Sim said.
She also said Wednesday that her statement read by the senior presidential secretary for public relations proves that Park intervened in the by-elections.
In the wake of the growing criticism from the opposition parties, Park’s office said she only expressed her position on the bribery allegations.
“Her statement was no more or less than expressing her stand on the issue,” presidential spokesman Min Kyung-wook said in a briefing.
However, the justice minister told lawmakers later in the day that an investigation will be launched should any clue about illegal acts of lobbying related to the special pardons be found.
Election-meddling has been a controversial issue between the government and opposition parties.
The latest such case happened in 2004, when the then main opposition Grand National Party and the second-largest opposition Millennium Democratic Party endorsed an impeachment motion against Roh.
At that time, Roh was criticized for allegedly violating his neutrality as president by publicly supporting the pro-government Uri Party ahead of the general elections.
Meanwhile, the presidential spokesman said President Park is recovering from fatigue slower than expected.
Since returning home Monday from her 12-day trip to South America, Park has had stomach cramps and a sore throat that prevent her from taking care of state affairs.