Key facts
- A parliamentary special committee will conduct its first on-site inspection into ballot shortages from the June local elections.
- The inspection will take place at the Songpa District Election Commission and the Olympic Park Handball Gymnasium in Seoul.
- The committee plans to request police cooperation due to ongoing protests at the Olympic Park area.
- The National Election Commission indicated openness to allowing external representatives to inspect stored ballot boxes.
- Protests claiming election fraud and demanding a rerun have been ongoing since June 5.
- The committee is scheduled to hold hearings on July 14 and July 22.
A special parliamentary committee established to investigate ballot shortages during the recent June local elections is set to conduct its first on-site inspection this week. Officials announced that the committee approved a plan to visit the Songpa District Election Commission and the Olympic Park Handball Gymnasium in southern Seoul on Thursday at 10 a.m.
The inspection aims to scrutinize the voting and ballot-counting processes that led to temporary suspensions of voting at 26 polling stations nationwide. The committee intends to request police cooperation for the inspection, acknowledging the ongoing protests at the Olympic Park area related to the ballot shortages.
Additionally, the committee has rescheduled its second on-site inspection to Tuesday, though the specific location is yet to be determined. During a plenary meeting, Kang Dong-wan, acting secretary-general of the National Election Commission (NEC), expressed the commission's openness to allowing representatives from political parties and civic groups to inspect the ballot boxes stored at the stadium, which served as a ballot counting site.
Protests demanding a rerun of the elections due to alleged fraud and ballot shortages began on June 5. Protesters have been blockading the stadium to prevent the removal of ballot boxes. The National Assembly formed the 18-member committee last month to investigate the causes of the shortages. The committee has scheduled its first hearing for July 14 and a second for July 22, after which it will finalize its report. It has also stated its intention to file complaints against any witnesses who fail to appear or provide false testimony.