South Korean lawmakers collected the lowest amount of political donations last year since 2012, official data showed Friday, in an apparent reflection of growing political apathy.
A total of 291 lawmakers received just over 36.2 billion won ($29.2 million) in political donations through their supporters’ associations, according to the country’s election watchdog the National Election Commission.
On average, each lawmaker collected 124 million won in donations, about 25 million won short of an upper limit of 150 million won. Nine lawmakers were excluded from the tally as they either lost their parliamentary seats or disbanded their supporters’ clubs.
The 2015 tally is 28.2 percent down from the previous year, when lawmakers raked in 50.4 billion won in total donations, or 168.6 million won on average for each lawmaker. An upper limit of 300 million won was set for political donations in 2014 because it was an election year.
The splinter opposition Justice Party received the highest amount of political donations on average for each lawmaker of 158 million won, followed by the Minjoo Party and the ruling Saenuri Party with 126 million and 122 million won per lawmaker, respectively.
By individual, Rep. Jeong Jin-hoo of the Justice Party earned the most with 173.4 million won, while Rep. Lee Hahn-koo, the head of the ruling party’s nomination committee for the April general elections, earned the least with 12.6 million won.
Political analysts attributed a fall in donations to continuing public dissatisfaction with the performances of sitting lawmakers whose four-year terms expire on May 29.
South Koreans are set to go to the polls in April to elect new lawmakers. (Yonhap)
