President Lee Accepts Complaints on Voting Rights Infringement, Rejects Election Fraud Claims

President Lee Jae Myung said Sunday that he accepts complaints about voting rights infringement over the unprecedented shortage of ballots in the recent local elections, but rejected claims of election fraud, arguing such claims skew the true nature of the issue.

Lee made the remarks during a meeting with his top aides held remotely from Rome, where he is visiting as part of a broader European trip.

"I acknowledge and accept all of our people's fair complaints about voting rights infringement," Lee said.

"It is absurd and I am taken aback that such an incident took place amid what can be said to be the foundation of democracy," he added, referring to the shortage of ballot papers in the June 3 local elections that reportedly left some voters to leave without casting their ballots.

The National Election Commission has acknowledged that more than two dozen polling stations nationwide had experienced temporary suspension of voting due to ballot shortages.

A group of people have been staging protest rallies at a vote counting station in eastern Seoul for 10 consecutive days, which at one point drew over 15,000 people, according to unofficial police estimates. The protesters have demanded a re-run of the elections, while some argue the ballot shortages were part of a broad election fraud scheme.

The president dismissed such claims, calling them a distortion of the issue and an anti-social crime, saying those who commit such crimes must be held accountable.