“Hard to Accept”: Special Counsel Probing the National Election Commission (NEC) Pushes Back After Warrant Denied Over “Fair Election Activity Allowance”

[Financial News] The special counsel team investigating the NEC (Special Counsel Lee Tae-han) said it would consider reapplying after a court rejected its search-and-seizure warrant request related to allegations over the “Fair Election Promotion Activity Allowance” paid to the NEC chair and non-standing commissioners.
The special counsel team said in a media notice on the 14th that it had sought search-and-seizure warrants for the NEC and other locations at around 3:40 p.m. on the 12th, but the court rejected them at around 2 p.m. on the 14th.
The special counsel said the court cited as grounds for the rejection that “the facts had largely been established and the suspects appear to take a different view of the legal assessment,” as well as “the considerable likelihood that the NEC’s normal operations would be significantly disrupted.”
The special counsel team is investigating how the “Fair Election Promotion Activity Allowance” came to be paid from 2014 onward, for about 12 years, at 2.9 million won per month to the NEC chair and 2.15 million won per month to each non-standing commissioner. The allowance has been paid as a fixed monthly sum, separately from meeting attendance and agenda review allowances.
The special counsel team explained that the search was intended to secure evidence to clarify allegations concerning activity allowances paid to current and former senior judges, including Supreme Court justices.
The special counsel team said, “We set out the criminal allegations in detail based on the facts established through our investigation to date and materials obtained from the Board of Audit and Inspection, and we also adequately explained the need to secure materials through a search and seizure.”
It added, expressing dissatisfaction, “There have recently been cases in which courts have rejected some search-and-seizure warrant requests for reasons that are hard to accept, including this denial.”
The special counsel team said, “We will continue our investigation without wavering, including by reapplying for search-and-seizure warrants, in order to uncover the truth behind the various allegations involving the NEC, including those concerning the Fair Election Promotion Activity Allowance.”
Meanwhile, the NEC special counsel searched five locations, including the NEC and companies involved in election supplies in Gimpo (Gyeonggi Province) and Daegu, as part of its investigation into alleged favoritism in sole-source contracts and collusion with vendors over a project to produce polling-place supply kits worth approximately 5 billion won.
 
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