(Yonhap Editorial) Politicos responsible for by-elections should pay up

SEOUL, Oct. 28 (Yonhap) -- Four city council members in Yeosu, South Jeolla Province, were stripped of their seats on Thursday after the Supreme Court found them guilty of graft, and three more are expected to face the same fate soon. This will eliminate more than a quarter of the 26-member council, and the law stipulates that in such a case, by-elections must be held within 60 days.
And that's not all. Four provincial government officials have either already lost their seats or are about to lose them. Another set of by-elections are likely to be held to elect their replacements.
Based on past records, these by-elections are expected to cost more than 3 billion won (US$2.7 million) in taxpayer money. Taxpayers have already had to pay 70 billion won for two sets of national by-elections this year.
It gets even more serious for Seoul. People in the capital city shelled out 18 billion won for a referendum in August asking them whether the city government should provide free school lunches. On Wednesday, a by-election was held to elect a new mayor after the former mayor quit over the referendum fiasco, costing the taxpayers another 32 billion. Questions arise why the mayor, who opposed the free lunch program, and the Seoul city council, who wanted it, utterly failed to compromise, which would have prevented the fiasco and saved the exorbitant costs of holding the two elections.
Unexpected events can happen, making by-elections inevitable. In most cases, however, officials are ousted because of graft or other irregularities. But they're never the ones who shoulder the election costs. It's always the people.
For the sake of the country and the people, and for true democracy to take root, election costs should be borne by those who "cause" the need for such polls. It is in this vein that we acknowledge a petition this week by a civic group in Yangcheon ward in Seoul against the ousted ward chief and his election rival, whose court battle over defamation resulted in a by-election. The petition demands that they pay the 2.2 billion won price tag for the by-election.
The group argues that the two men were only interested in gaining power, not implementing better policies for the community, and thus were personally responsible for the re-do. The group is right.
The case awaits a court ruling, but even if the court sides against the group, something must be done, even if it means changing election laws, in order to protect the public's interest as well as its pocketbook.
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