[Breaking] President Lee Criticizes Election Commission: "No Excuse, Extremely Serious"

President Lee Meets with Four Key Officials, Excluding Election Commission
Criticizes: "Appropriate Responsibility Must Be Taken in Some Form"

On June 8, President Lee Jaemyung met with the heads of the four major branches of government, excluding the National Election Commission, and strongly criticized the recent situation, stating, "Failing to properly guarantee the exercise of voting rights and not sufficiently ensuring the realization of the people's sovereignty is an extremely serious issue for which there is simply no excuse."

That afternoon, at the main building of the presidential office, President Lee met with National Assembly Speaker Cho Jeong-sik, Chief Justice Cho Hee-dae, Prime Minister Kim Min-seok, and Constitutional Court President Kim Sang-hwan. He remarked, "Elections are at the core of the fundamental constitutional order in the Republic of Korea; they are truly about the process of exercising the people’s sovereignty." Noh Tae-ak, the head of the National Election Commission, who had expressed his intention to resign, was excluded from the list of attendees among the five major authorities.

Yonhap News

President Lee pointed out, "It is difficult for this situation to simply be overlooked," adding, "As you all know, the National Election Commission is an independent body as stipulated by the Constitution, and no one is officially allowed to comment on or interfere with its work."

President Lee further criticized, "According to the current interpretation of the law, even if a wrongdoing is committed, it cannot even be audited. Since this is also a matter of constitutional interpretation, it is difficult to officially ascertain what is happening right now."

He then proposed, "Since the heads of independent constitutional bodies are all gathered here, I would like us to have an official discussion on how to address this issue." He continued, "Although a clear solution may not emerge immediately, it is necessary to first clarify the facts. In any case, those responsible must be held suitably accountable from the perspective of the people."

He added, "Lastly, I believe we should also discuss any possible alternatives or countermeasures that may be available."

This content was produced with the assistance of AI translation services.