The prosecution’s credibility has been questioned as a suspect in the alleged vote-buying scheme in the Democratic United Party’s leadership election is believed to have been handing out invitations to an event, not cash.

On Thursday the prosecutors looking into the alleged vote-buying attempt at a DUP leadership primary on Dec. 26 said that the suspect Kim Gyeong-hyup did not distribute money. Kim is a well-known Bucheon-based labor activist who served as a secretary for social affairs during the Roh Moo-hyun administration. He is registered as a preliminary DUP candidate representing a Bucheon constituency for the April 11 general elections.

The investigators raided Kim’s office on Tuesday after they secured CCTV footage showing a person suspected of being Kim holding envelopes on the day of the vote. The investigators had suspected that the envelopes contained cash, but Kim denied the allegations and said that they were invitations to a book publication event he held on Jan. 4.

After questioning Kim and conducting further investigations, the prosecutors’ office said that it has decided to accept Kim’s claims.

“Footage showed Kim moving around, and the envelopes appeared to be square but we decided to accept Kim’s claims as it is likely that they were invitations,” an official with the prosecutors said.

Kim was seen handing unmarked envelopes to a number of people, and the recipients appeared to be putting them away in what the prosecutors had believed to be a secretive fashion.

While the investigation has run into a dead end with Kim, investigators are following other leads about a possible vote-buying scheme in the opposition party leadership primary.

The election commission in charge of the southern city of Daegu has unearthed evidence that a Daegu district councilor named Lee treated voters to a meal to garner support for Han Myeong-sook, who later won the leadership contest, and has referred the case to the prosecutors’ office.

According to the election commission, Lee provided food stuffs worth 371,000 won ($332) to voters, and gave 100,000 won each to two people who gave him a list of people who will be casting ballots.

By Choi He-suk  (cheesuk@heraldcorp.com)