350 Appeals Filed over June 3 Local Elections... 7.7 Times Surge from Previous Election

Yonhap News

The National Election Commission announced on June 18 that a total of 350 appeals related to the June 3 local elections had been filed with the central election commission and the 17 city and provincial election commissions nationwide.

This represents a dramatic increase of approximately 7.7 times compared to the number of appeals (45 cases) received during the 2022 local elections.

According to the commission, as of the previous day, 271 appeals had been submitted to the central election commission, and as of June 16, 79 appeals had been filed with the city and provincial election commissions.

The number of cases submitted to the central commission (271 cases) surged by a staggering 20.8 times compared to the 2022 local elections (13 cases). By type, there were 126 cases related to metropolitan mayors, 67 for superintendents of education, 59 for proportional representation metropolitan councilors, 5 for Sejong City councilors, and 14 for elections not specified. Of these, 28 appeals were related to the Seoul mayoral election.

The number of appeals submitted to the city and provincial election commissions (79 cases) also increased by about 2.4 times compared to the previous local elections (32 cases). These included 21 for basic local government heads, 19 for district metropolitan councilors, 27 for district basic councilors, and 12 for proportional representation basic councilors.

Under the Public Official Election Act, appeals are categorized as “election appeals,” which challenge the validity of the election, and “elected candidate appeals,” which challenge the validity of the election outcome.

Election appeals, which may be filed by voters, candidates, or political parties within two weeks of election day, closed on June 17. Elected candidate appeals, which can be submitted by political parties or candidates within two weeks of the date of the final decision on the elected candidate, are accepted until today. However, in the case of the Seoul mayoral election, where the vote count and announcement of the winner were delayed, elected candidate appeals may be filed until June 19.

Once an appeal is filed, the Election Commission’s Appeal Review Committee must render a decision within the statutory period of 60 days. If the commission upholds the appeal, a re-election must be held within 30 days from the date of the decision notification. If the appeal is dismissed or rejected, the party who filed the appeal may file a lawsuit with the court within 10 days of receiving the decision letter.

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