"District Mayor's Name on Chuseok Gifts?"... Election Commission Investigates Gwangju Nam-gu for Election Law Violation

by Min Chanki

Published 30 Oct.2025 14:02(KST)

Exterior view of Gwangju Nam-gu Office.

It has been revealed that Gwangju Nam-gu provided holiday gifts to on-site workers under the name of the district mayor, prompting the election commission to launch an investigation into whether this constitutes a violation of the ban on donation activities.

According to the Gwangju Nam-gu Election Commission and other sources on October 30, the commission is currently investigating whether the recent distribution of Chuseok gifts under the district mayor's name violates the Public Official Election Act's prohibition on donation activities.

Prior to the recent Chuseok holiday, the district delivered Tteokgalbi gift sets to 118 on-site workers, including security guards and sanitation workers, under the name of Gwangju Nam-gu Mayor Kim Byungnae.

Originally, the gifts were intended as a holiday gesture from the institution. However, controversy arose because they were distributed under the district mayor's personal name. The Public Official Election Act prohibits public officials, such as heads of local governments, from providing money or goods to voters in their constituencies. During an internal review, the district determined that distributing the gifts under the mayor's name was inappropriate and promptly retrieved some of the gifts.

A representative from Nam-gu explained, "Every year during holidays, we have provided gifts to workers under the institution's name, but this time a simple mistake was made in the labeling process. As soon as we recognized the issue, we took action by retrieving some of the gifts, and there was absolutely no special intent behind it."

An official from the Nam-gu Election Commission stated, "As this matter is currently under investigation, we cannot provide specific details."