A provincial governor and close ally of South Korean President Moon Jae-in was convicted and jailed for two years Wednesday for his part in an online opinion-rigging scandal ahead of the 2017 presidential election.

Kim Kyoung-soo was found guilty of colluding with a blogger to artificially generate more than 88 million likes and dislikes on comments on 76,000 news stories.

The intent was to rig the algorithms of Naver, South Korea’s largest portal, to give more prominence to stories favourable to then-presidential candidate Moon.

In the event the liberal won the poll — held in the aftermath of the ouster of Park Geun-hye for corruption — by a landslide.

Kim had instructed the blogger — nicknamed Druking — to carry out the scheme and had been aware of an illegal computer programme being used, the Seoul Central District Court said.