※ The Public Official Election Act has been amended on February 29^th as follow:

     Persons who are eligible to wage campaigns are allowed to post information (including writings or UCC) on Internet homepages or their bulletin boards; or conduct election campaigns using e-mails, mobile messengers or SNS except on the election day. (Public Official election Act §59(2)(3))

l  Internet advertisements for election campaigns shall follow the preceding examples.

Internet advertisements for election campaigns which cause costs may violate the law.

The decision the NEC has made this time aims at closing loopholes of the law and preventing legal confusion by setting guidelines, as the Constitutional Court ruled the case on the Clause 93(1) as limitedly unconstitutional.

Add to that, the NEC urged the National Assembly to amend the law swiftly for legal stability and consistency of the legal system, because the decision (limitedly unconstitutional) on the Clause 93(1) could affect the Public Official Election Act by and large including the Clause 254 which bans pre-election campaigns.

The NEC has submitted its proposal to the National Assembly for 5 times between 2003 and 2011(April 8) to amend the Public Official Election Act that shall allow election campaigns on the Internet all the time.

2.   The reason the NEC has amended the rule for the management of intra-party competition is as follows:

The board meeting reached a consensus on amending the rule for the commission of Intra-party competition clerical services that the application deadline shall be extended by 30 days.

Therefore, the application will be accepted by February 13 (it was by January 13 before the amendment) regarding the National Assembly elections which will be held on April 11.

This shows NEC’s firm commitment on building a sound and fair political atmosphere, as the NEC plays an active role in holding intra-party competition despite its tight schedule and difficulties in preparing the National Assembly elections.

3.   NEC’s standpoint on prosecutors’ investigation result of DDOS cyber attack on NEC’s website is as follows:

Attacking the NEC is a very severe crime which harms the foundation of democracy, so its culprits must be found out and get punished. In addition, we need to make utmost efforts to prevent from happening again.

In this respect, the NEC will take a firm action against this kind of attacks in order to manage the National Assembly elections and Presidential election this year in a fair and successful manner, so it will do its best to meet the expectations of the people.