Election Commission Allows 'Coffee Cost 120 Won' Banner... "Then What About 875 Won Green Onion?"

[Financial News]  The National Election Commission allowed the posting of banners targeting Lee Jae-myung, the Democratic Party's presidential candidate, for his '120 Won Coffee Cost' remark, while the Democratic Party and others raised the issue of fairness by bringing up the '875 Won Green Onion' case from last year's general election.

Members of the National Assembly's Administrative Safety Committee from the Democratic Party, Cho-guk Innovation Party, and Basic Income Party issued a statement on the 27th, criticizing the banner with the phrase '120 Won Coffee Cost' as "a banner that clearly reminds one of a specific candidate and lacks any indication of who posted it." They criticized the Election Commission for allowing the banner, judging that it "does not easily remind one of a specific candidate."

The committee members stated, "It is clear that this banner is intended to influence the election. It clearly violates Article 90, Paragraph 1 of the Public Official Election Act," questioning, "Who can consider the Election Commission's arbitrary interpretation that this is a general voting encouragement activity as sensible?"

They then mentioned the '875 Won Green Onion'.

The committee members pointed out, "The Election Commission, which said the phrase 'Coffee Cost 120 Won' is acceptable, applied strict standards to the '875 Won Green Onion' during last year's general election."


Before the 22nd general election last year, then-President Yoon Seok-youl visited the Yangjae branch of Nonghyup Hanaro Mart in Seocho-gu, Seoul, for a 'basket price field inspection' and remarked, "875 Won for a bunch of green onions seems like a reasonable price," which led to criticism that he was "unaware of prices."

Subsequently, the Democratic Party used green onions as props to criticize President Yoon's remarks and conducted election campaigns. 

At the time, the Election Commission took the position that "political acts protesting a specific party or candidate could psychologically affect other voters and violate the principle of secret voting, so they must be restricted according to the Public Official Election Act" in response to a voter's inquiry about "whether it is permissible to bring green onions to the polling station as a protest against the government." They later prepared internal guidelines for voter guidance. 

The committee members questioned, "What is the reason that something impossible then is possible now? Is this the neutral and fair election management that the Election Commission claims?" They demanded a reconsideration of the use of the 'Coffee 120 Won' phrase, stating, "If even demands based on common sense are not accepted, we will consider all possible measures at the committee level."

y27k@fnnews.com Seo Yoon-kyung Reporter