Jeong Jeom-sik Proposes Extending Election Commission Parliamentary Inquiry to Address Unprecedented Incident

Jeong Jeom-sik, floor leader of the People Power Party, commented on July 23 regarding the parliamentary investigation into the shortage of ballot papers during the 9th nationwide simultaneous local elections, saying, "This is an unprecedented incident in which the right to vote has been infringed," and officially proposed to the Democratic Party of Korea to extend the investigation period.

During his opening remarks at the party caucus held at the National Assembly in Yeouido, Seoul, Jeong stated, "Although the parliamentary investigation into the violation of citizens' suffrage has effectively concluded as of yesterday, there is no need to rush to end the investigation when the truth has not been fully revealed." He then made the aforementioned proposal.

Yonhap News Agency

Previously, regarding the shortage of ballot papers, the joint investigation headquarters comprising the prosecution and police announced on the same day that it had uncovered suspicions of false reporting of voter turnout by officials from the National Election Commission and the Gyeonggi Provincial Election Commission, and had launched a search and seizure operation.

Regarding the parliamentary investigation, Jeong pointed out, "It was revealed that Wi Cheol-hwan, acting chairperson of the National Election Commission, gave false testimony, and the key witnesses gave inconsistent statements. Both the Ministry of the Interior and Safety and the Ministry of National Defense were uncooperative, and the adoption of witnesses and submission of documents were handled insincerely." He added, "Moreover, the joint investigation headquarters has detected suspicions of fabricated voter turnout figures and is now carrying out a search and seizure at the National Election Commission."

Jeong also stated, "We must thoroughly ascertain the facts by pursuing both the parliamentary investigation and a special prosecutor in parallel."

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