"NEC Did Not Share Presidential Election Ballot Shortage Incident... Internal Task Force Unaware"

The Joint Investigation Headquarters (JIH) comprising prosecutors and police have obtained testimony indicating that when the National Election Commission (NEC) decided to reduce the number of local election ballot papers to be printed, it did not share information about the ‘ballot shortage incident’ from the previous presidential election with its internal task force.

According to legal sources on the 19th, the JIH recently received testimony during an inquiry involving members of the NEC’s Task Force for Improving Election Procedures that they “had no knowledge whatsoever of the ballot shortage incident during the 21st presidential election because the NEC did not provide any relevant data.”

The Seoul Election Commission office in Jongno-gu, Seoul. Photo by Yonhap News

The improvement task force is an internal body comprising around nine NEC employees, formed to analyze incidents from the 21st presidential election and develop improvements in preparation for local elections. The task force previously suggested lowering the minimum reduction rate for ballot paper printing to 50%, citing excessive leftover ballots leading to budget waste.

The testimony confirms that at the time the task force put forward this opinion, they were entirely unaware of the ballot shortage incident in the 21st presidential election. During the previous presidential election, 58 polling stations nationwide reportedly faced concerns over ballot shortages, resulting in the use of unnumbered ballots. At the 12th polling station in Hwawon-eup, Dalseong-gun, Daegu, for example, it was reported that unnumbered ballots had to be used due to a shortage.

The JIH views this testimony as supporting evidence of poor management by the NEC and is investigating whether the NEC intentionally concealed the ballot shortage incident. Next week, the JIH plans to summon as suspects the heads of local NEC secretariats in districts affected by the ballot shortage. To date, the investigation has only involved questioning staff at major polling stations and NEC administrative employees as reference witnesses.

Meanwhile, the JIH also plans to intensify investigations into allegations of mismanagement, including suspicions of NEC employees taking overseas trips mainly for leisure purposes.

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