= Reduced amount by $58 million through due diligence after parties and candidates claimed $338 million =

= $2.6 million reimbursed for campaign expenses made in Re and by-elections for National Assembly members, reduced by $430,000 =

The National Election Commission (NEC) of the Republic of Korea reimbursed 320.29 billion Korean won ($280 million USD) of campaign expenses made by political parties and candidates during the local elections held on June 13. 

According to the principle of publicly funded elections set out in the Constitution of the Republic of Korea and the Public Official Election Act, when a candidate is elected or receives  a certain number of votes the national and local governments will cover the campaign expenses used during an election. 

The NEC said that it had reduced reimbursements by 65.6 billion Korean won ($58 million USD) by examining the validity of the claims made by candidates (in the case of elections using proportional representation, this refers to the party who recommended the candidates from this point on) through review of the relevant documents and on-site inspections. 

In this election a total of 6,619 candidates (75% of the 8,830 candidates) were eligible for reimbursement of campaign expenses. From among these 5,640 candidates received the full reimbursement by either being elected or receiving more than 15% of valid votes and 979 candidates were reimbursed half of their campaign expenses by receiving between 10 and 15% of valid votes. 

The amounts per election were as follows: 

• Mayoral and gubernatorial elections (36 candidates): 41.2 billion Korean won ($36.5 million USD)

• Elections for superintendents of education (52 candidates): 54.9 billion Korean won ($48.6 million USD)

• Elections for heads of local governments (543 candidates): 57 billion Korean won ($50.5 million USD)

• Elections for constituency members of city and provincial councils (1,681 candidates): 54.8 billion Korean won ($48.5 million USD)

• Elections for proportional representation members of city and provincial councils (46 candidates): 7.2 billion Korean won ($6.3 million USD)

• Elections for constituency members of local councils (3,941 candidates): 96.6 billion Korean won ($85.6 million USD)

• Elections for proportional representation members of local councils (317 candidates): 8.2 billion Korean won ($7.2 million USD)

• Elections for members of education councils (3 candidates): 80 million Korean won (70,000 USD)

• Re and by-elections for National Assembly members (27 candidates): 30 billion Korean won ($2.6 million USD)

Campaign expenses in these local elections increased by 27.12 billion won compared to the 293.17 billion won ($257.8 million USD) spent during the 6th nationwide simultaneous local elections. This is because the number of candidates that qualified for reimbursement in these local elections increased (6,352 candidates in the 6th nationwide simultaneous local elections compared to 6,619 candidates in the 7th nationwide simultaneous local elections).

The average reimbursement per candidate per election was similar to that from the 6th nationwide simultaneous local elections.

In addition, 2.97 billion won ($2.6 million USD) was reimbursed to candidates regardless of if they were elected or the percentage of the vote they received that were costs that should be covered by national or local governments including the costs of preparing and sending Braille election information, the cost of preparing Braille campaign pledge booklets and any allowances or expenses related to assistance for disabled candidates. 

Even after the campaign expenses have been reimbursed, the NEC shall request the return any reimbursements if illegal activities are found such as a reduction or omission of election expenses, receipt of rebates through secret contracts with companies or the use of political funds for private use or fraudulent spending.

Anyone who wishes to view the political fund income and expenditure records and supporting document by political parties or candidates can do so through each related Election Commission by October 22 and the details of campaign expenses within the political fund information can be found on the commission''s website.​