Legal jeopardy is closing in on the People Power Party. With Seoul Mayor Oh Se-hoon and former President Yoon Suk Yeol both handed sentences that would void their election wins, the party faces mounting pressure. Voices inside and outside the PPP warn that "the weight of the past feels heavy at a time when we need to be stepping up our fight against the opposition."
A court sentenced Yoon on Monday to 18 months in prison, suspended for three years, after finding him guilty of violating the Public Official Election Act. Earlier, Oh received a first-instance ruling of a 10 million won ($6,820) fine and a 21 million won surcharge on charges of violating the Political Funds Act. Under South Korean law, an elected official whose fine of 1 million won or more — or prison term — for a Political Funds Act violation is finalized automatically loses their seat.
If both sentences are upheld, the fallout for the PPP would be severe. A final conviction for Yoon would require the party to return 39.7 billion won in reimbursed presidential campaign expenses to the National Election Commission. As of February, the PPP's total assets stood at roughly 131.5 billion won, most of it tied up in real estate — land, buildings and lease deposits. With liquid cash and deposits amounting to only about 11.6 billion won, some within the party have floated the idea of selling its headquarters building.
Oh faces unavoidable political damage as well. His come-from-behind victory in the June 3 local elections had quickly elevated him as a leading presidential contender, but the legal risk has emerged as a significant variable.
"After the local elections, Oh and others rose to prominence and the party's approval rating climbed sharply on expectations of change — but the upward momentum already seems to be stalling," one PPP lawmaker said Tuesday. A Realmeter survey conducted July 23 to 24 for the Energy Economy newspaper, polling 1,001 registered voters aged 18 and older nationwide, put PPP support at 40.6 percent. A separate survey of 1,002 voters conducted July 11 to 12 had shown the party at 44.3 percent — its highest since the Lee Jae Myung government took office. (For details, see the National Election Survey Deliberation Commission website.)
Legal troubles are piling up inside the National Assembly as well. Former lawmaker Kwon Seong-dong has already lost his seat after a court finalized a two-year prison sentence for receiving 100 million won in illegal political funds from the Unification Church. Lawmakers Kim Ki-hyun and Na Kyung-won are under special prosecutor investigation on charges of obstructing Yoon's arrest.
Tensions between the party leadership and the courts continue to simmer. The PPP has already been thrown into disarray by candidates who challenged local election primary results in court and won injunctions forcing re-runs of those primaries. Disciplinary rulings the party's ethics committee handed down against lawmaker Bae Hyun-jin and former supreme council member Kim Jong-hyuk were also nullified after courts granted injunctions against them.
mp1256@heraldcorp.com
