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An alliance of civic groups yesterday threatened to stage a civil disobedience campaign in protest against a failure by the parliament to guarantee them full freedom in election campaigning.

The threat came the day after the National Assembly passed a revision bill on the electoral law, which is designed to allow civic groups to campaign for or against specific candidates.

The Citizens' Alliance for the 2000 General Elections has repeatedly called for the scrapping of several ``bad'' clauses of the electoral law so that civic groups can stage election campaigns without any restrictions.

But the revised law still bans civic groups from holding outdoor rallies to support or oppose certain candidates or collect signatures from the public.

A spokesman for the citizens' alliance said it would soon hold outdoor rallies to call for the full freedom for civic groups.

He stressed that such rallies would be part of the alliance's civic disobedience campaign against political parties and the government.

``The passage of the revision bill did not reflect people's aspirations for political reform. Political parties collaborated to serve their partisan interests,'' said the spokesman.

He revealed that the civic disobedience campaign would continue until the end of the April 13 election.

The alliance also plans to ask the Constitutional Court of Korea to decide whether the amended election law is in line with the spirit of basic rights guaranteed by the Constitution.

A member of the alliance complained that lawmakers passed the revision bill in such a way as to retain some restrictions on civic group campaigning.

Another civic group, the Citizens' Coalition for Economic Justice (CCEJ), also slammed politicians for compromising on the revision of the election laws.

The CCEJ said the rewritten law failed to live up to the people's call for reform of corrupt politics and the desire for changes in the new millennium.

It demanded lawmakers scrap all the objectionable clauses of the election law.