Disqualified from Candidacy Due to Violation of the Public Official Election Act
Has Run for President Three Times Since 1997
As the presidential election on June 3 approaches, public attention is focused on whether Heo Kyungyoung, the honorary representative of the National Revolutionary Party, will run. This is because, although he has always made flashy declarations of candidacy and presented unconventional pledges in every presidential election, there has been no mention from him regarding his participation in this election. On April 30, numerous posts related to Heo Kyungyoung appeared on several online communities. Netizens wrote comments such as, "So, is Heo Kyungyoung running this time?" and "What is Heo Kyungyoung doing these days? What are his pledges for this presidential election?"
As the presidential election on June 3 approaches, public attention is focused on whether Heo Kyungyoung, the Honorary Representative of the National Revolutionary Party, will run. Every time there is a presidential election, he has made flashy declarations of candidacy along with unconventional pledges, but currently, there has been no mention regarding his participation in this election. Photo by Kim Hyunmin
The reason why Honorary Representative Heo, who has run for president three times since 1997, has remained silent is that in April of last year, the Supreme Court upheld a sentence of two years in prison with three years of probation for violating the Public Official Election Act. During the 20th presidential election in 2022, Heo was indicted without detention on August 23 of the same year on charges of spreading false information, such as claiming that he was the adopted son of the late Lee Byungchul, former chairman of Samsung Group, or that he had served as a policy aide to former President Park Chunghee.
In response, the court of first instance in October 2023 stated, "This is a serious crime that undermines the fundamental nature of representative democracy by distorting voters' judgment and nullifying the legislative intent of the Public Official Election Act to ensure the fairness of elections, thereby making the election process chaotic." Although Heo appealed, both the appellate court and the Supreme Court dismissed his appeals.
As the June 3 presidential election approaches, public attention is focused on whether Heo Kyungyoung, honorary representative of the National Revolutionary Party, will run. Every time there is a presidential election, he has made flashy declarations of candidacy along with unconventional pledges, but currently, there has been no statement from him regarding his participation in this election. Photo by Yoon Dongju
Article 18 of the Public Official Election Act stipulates that if a person is sentenced to probation, their eligibility to run for office is revoked for 10 years after the sentence is finalized. Since Honorary Representative Heo received a finalized sentence in April of last year, this means he cannot run in any elections until April 2034. This is not the first time Heo has lost his eligibility to run for office. In 2008, he was also indicted for spreading false information, sentenced to imprisonment, and lost his eligibility to run for office for 10 years. In 2007, while running as a presidential candidate, he was indicted the following year for stating, "If I become president, I will marry Park Geunhye, the former leader of the Grand National Party, and I attended the inauguration dinner of President George Bush as the representative of Korea." The Supreme Court finalized a sentence of one year and six months in prison. Meanwhile, Heo has attempted to run for president since the 13th presidential election in 1987 and has run in the 15th presidential election in 1997, the 17th in 2007, and the 20th in 2022.
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