As the 21st presidential election approaches on June 3, some netizens are curious about the candidacy of Huh Kyung-young, honorary representative of the National Revolutionary Party. However, Representative Huh is unable to run as he has been stripped of his eligibility to stand for election.
On the 30th, posts such as 'Will Huh Kyung-young run in this presidential election too?' and 'Huh, who usually runs, is not seen this time' appeared in online communities. However, Representative Huh has been deprived of his eligibility to run until April 2034 after running as the second candidate for proportional representation of the National Revolutionary Party in the 22nd National Assembly election held in April last year.
Representative Huh was tried for spreading false information during the 20th presidential election in 2022, claiming, 'In fact, I am the adopted son of the late Lee Byung-chul, founder of Samsung Group,' and 'I was a policy advisor to former President Park Chung-hee.' He was sentenced to two years in prison with a three-year suspended sentence for violating the Public Official Election Act. According to Articles 18 and 19 of the Public Official Election Act, those sentenced to a suspended prison term for a crime cannot run for election for 10 years after the sentence is finalized.
This is not the first time Representative Huh has been stripped of his eligibility to run. He was prosecuted during the 17th presidential election in 2007 for spreading false information, including claims such as 'If I become president, I will marry former Grand National Party leader Park Geun-hye' and 'I attended the inauguration dinner of former U.S. President George Bush as the representative of Korea,' and he was sentenced to one year and six months in prison. As a result, he was able to run again starting in 2020, ten years later.
Representative Huh has consistently run in elections, starting with the 1991 local elections. He has run as a candidate in the 15th presidential election in 1997, the 17th general election in 2004, the 17th presidential election in 2007, the 21st general election in 2020, the Seoul mayoral by-election in 2021, the 20th presidential election in 2022, and the 22nd general election in 2024, but he has lost in all instances.