"Money elections" and "organization elections" refer to a backward political culture in which funds and groups are covertly mobilized to distort and manipulate voter sentiment. To prevent this, Korea created the Political Funds Act (now the Political Funds Act) and the Political Parties Act starting in the 1960s. In 1994, it enacted the Act on the Election of Public Officials and the Prevention of Election Malpractice (now the Public Official Election Act). This introduced a public election financing system, under which part or all of the campaign expenses of candidates for public office are covered by the national budget.
Even so, running for elected office requires substantial cost and manpower. In the 9th local elections held last month, campaign spending per candidate for metropolitan mayor or provincial governor averaged 940 million won. That figure marks a sharp increase from the 7th local elections (about 760 million won) and the 8th local elections (900 million won). Presidential election spending shows the same trend. The combined presidential election spending of the Democratic Party and the People Power Party soared to 98.5 billion won in 2025. At this rate, the two parties' combined spending in the next presidential election could surpass 100 billion won.
Money spent freely by relying on the public election financing system returns as a boomerang when an election victory is nullified. On the 27th, a court of first instance sentenced former President Yoon Suk-yeol, the People Power Party candidate in the 2022 presidential election, to one year and six months in prison, suspended for three years, on charges of violating the Public Official Election Act. If such a sentence carrying nullification of the election victory is confirmed at the final trial, the People Power Party must return 39.7 billion won in presidential campaign costs reimbursed with taxpayers' money. Earlier, the Democratic Party faced the risk of having to return 43.4 billion won in election reimbursement costs, but avoided it. This was because President Lee Jae-myung, as the Democratic Party's presidential candidate in 2022, had received a sentence nullifying his election victory in the first trial on charges of violating the Public Official Election Act, but was found not guilty in subsequent trials.
Whether in public elections or intra-party primaries, most costs arise in the process of gathering supporters. Quite a few politicians, seeking to reduce that burden, have succumbed to the temptation of illegal assistance from particular groups. Following past suspicions of the Unification Church's intervention in the People Power Party's presidential primary, suspicions have recently emerged of involvement by the religious group Shincheonji ahead of the Democratic Party's primary for its next party leader candidate. Regardless of whether they are true, these cases prompt reflection on the current state of Korean politics, which still cannot escape the shadow of money elections and organization elections. This is why reform of political parties and the electoral system must be achieved.
