A string of scandals involving aides of ruling Saenuri Party presidential candidate Park Geun-hye have hurt the five-term lawmaker's drive to win over voters ahead of the December election, political sources said Wednesday.
The candidate, who is the first woman to win a presidential ticket from a South Korean major political party, has been plagued by people close to her being named suspects in bribery and money-for-nomination scandals.
"The incidents have all affected Park's efforts to seek national unity and undermined her pledge to root out political corruption, particularly among people in power or close to the president," a party insider said.
In early August, former lawmaker Hyun Ki-kwan, who played a role in picking candidates ahead of the April 11 general election, was accused of receiving 300 million won from Rep. Hyun Young-hee through a middleman.
State prosecutors arrested the middleman and will charge Hyun Young-hee with offering a bribe, although they took no legal action against Hyun Ki-kwan for lack of evidence. All those involved have been expelled from the party.
This was followed by revelations earlier this week that former vice parliamentary speaker and co-chairman of Park's primary campaign team, Hong Sa-duk, is accused of having received a total of 60 million won ($53,700) in illegal political funds from a businessman between last autumn and March of this year.
Hong claimed he is innocent and called for a swift investigation into the allegations. He, however, said he would voluntarily leave the party to minimize any fallout.
Both Hong and the businessman said no money changed hands and blamed a driver for falsifying purported evidence to receive reward money from the government.
Adding more fuel to such troubles, former lawmaker Song Young-sun has been reported as asking a local businessmen for money, which she said could be used to generate votes for Park in the upcoming presidential race. In a transcript released by a local daily, Song said she needed 150 million won to win over at least 60,000 voters from her electoral district in Namyangju, east of Seoul.
The party swiftly expelled Song, citing the incident could cause considerable damage to Saenuri and its candidate with three months to go before the Dec. 19 poll.
Party secretary general, Suh Byung-soo, said if Song asked for money, it is the kind of politics that Saenuri wants to do away with.(Yonhap)