Clear the clouds over nomination intervention

The presidential office might have taken the affair lightly, but it may now have to brace for a boomerang.

President Yoon Suk Yeol is suspected of having meddled in the by-election of a legislative seat in 2022. According to a recorded conversation between Yoon and Myung Tae-kyun, a self-proclaimed “political broker,” released by the opposition Democratic Party (DP), Yoon said he recommended former People Power Party (PPP) Rep. Kim Young-sun as a candidate, crediting her hard work during the primary. “But there is much talk in the party,” Yoon told Myung.

The conversation took place on May 9, 2022. Yoon was inaugurated to presidency on the following day. The nomination for the PPP’s candidate for the by-election was also announced on the following day. Legally, the president had not violated the neutrality code as he did not start office. Still, his direct involvement in party nomination itself is shocking.

The presidential office denied that the president sought advice on the nomination and made an order. But how can he explain his voice in the taped conversation saying the nomination committee had come to him for his opinion and that he had specifically named Kim? The president has lost credibility from the exposure.

The presidential office last month said the president kept his distance from Myung toward the end of the primary. But the disclosed conversation was made six months after the primary.

The presidential office explained that the president had merely responded to Myung who kept pitching for Kim’s nomination and that the conversation carried no meaning. The fact that the president continues to take serious affairs so lightly paints him as a haughty egoist to the people.

As the head of the Seoul Central District Prosecutors’ Office four years go, Yoon had indicted former president Park Geun-hye in February 2018 for meddling in the ruling party’s nominations for the 2016 parliamentary elections. She was sentenced to two years in prison. The court concluded the president was meddling in an election just by getting involved in the nomination. Yoon would have been fully aware of the illegality of the affair. The fact that he “lightly” made a suggestion for a nomination cannot be excused.

The main opposition claims it had opened a “Pandora’s Box.” There is a view that a president-elect also falls in the legal liability of keeping political neutrality. The prosecution must get to the bottom of the affair and investigate the nomination committee members to find what really happened at the time. The presidential couple no longer can hide from making a public statement. The presidential office might have taken the affair lightly, but it may now have to brace for a boomerang.