Opposition leader fined for using unregistered polls for campaign
Liberty Party Korea leader Hong Joon-pyo attends a party event in Changwon, South Gyeongsang Province, Wednesday. / Yonhap
By Park Ji-won
The National Election Commission (NEC) has levied a fine of 20 billion won ($18,620) on the main opposition Liberty Korea Party (LKP) leader Hong Joon-pyo for using the results of an unregistered opinion poll for an election campaign last month.
Hong criticized the decision, Wednesday, saying he has no money to pay the fine.
On Facebook, the LKP chief expressed concerns over the NEC's decision insisting that he didn't publicly reveal the polling data but spoke to reporters “off the record.”
“It is a very sorry situation that the NEC fined (me),” Hong said Wednesday.
“The Youido Institute is the most reliable pollster among survey institutes. However, we share the institute's data among insiders as it is not for surveys of announcements or registration at the NEC.”
The Youido Institute is an umbrella organization run by the LKP.
The NEC's survey regulation committee said on April 27 that Hong was fined 20 million won for publicly announcing the polling data quoted from the Youido Institute that isn't registered as an official survey institute at the election commission's website.
The NEC said Hong violated the public official law for what he said to reporters that the party's Ulsan Metropolitan city mayoral candidate Kim Gi-hyeon won the poll by 10 percentage points over his opponent, March 21. Hong also said the LKP candidate is leading the other parties' candidates April 4.
According to the law, anyone who publicly announced unregistered data can be fined up to 30 million won.
Hong refuted the supervisory body's decision that the party cannot afford the amount. However, the NEC said Hong Joon-pyo should pay the fine out of his own pocket because using the party's funds would be violating another political funding law.