By Chung Ah-young
Staff Reporter

Police have raided a district chapter of the ruling Uri Party to seize its member registration list to confirm allegations over the party’s illegal recruitment scheme.

It is rare for investigators to raid a party’s district chapter and seize the entire contents of a registration list.

Some 70-100 aged residents in Pongchon-dong, southwestern Seoul, were registered with the party without their consent as it illegally took money from several low-income, senior citizens residents without their consent.

Some 1,000 to 2,000 won had allegedly been remitted from their bank accounts, after they were registered as party members.

Police seized a box carrying the registration files about 156 members and the relevant documents at the chapter.

Police also secured a list of five suspects who are allegedly involved in masterminding the illegal recruitment scheme.

They are trying to confirm the allegations by comparing handwriting in the registration book to the originals and determine whether or not they were registered with the party without their consent.

They will also focus on determining whether those members actually paid the membership fee or not.

The ruling party with 144 seats in the 299-member National Assembly introduced a membership system

It has been rumored that those wishing to run in elections on the party’s ticket paid the money to create a slew of bogus supporters.

With six months remaining until the party’s internal race for the May local elections begins early this year, the number of party members totaled some 150,000 in May in 2004, after its national convention in April. The number, however, sharply increased three-fold to 450,000 by August.

chungay@koreatimes.co.kr