KSOC to take legal action over ballot-shortage protest disruption

By Yoo Jee-ho

SEOUL, July 24 (Yonhap) -- The national Olympic committee said Friday it will pursue legal action against protesters and the top election body over damage incurred during the ongoing ballot-shortage controversy.

The Korean Sport & Olympic Committee (KSOC) said it will once again attempt to send nine of its member associations back to their offices inside Olympic Park Handball Gymnasium in southern Seoul next week.

The stadium served as a ballot counting site for the June 3 local elections. When ballot shortages temporarily suspended voting at several polling stations, protesters showed up on June 5 to block access to the gym, claiming election fraud and demanding a rerun of the elections.

Nine national sports federations, including those for handball and fencing, are housed inside the stadium. They have not been able to get past the protesters despite a few attempts. Athletes for those sports have been forced to compete internationally using borrowed equipment and uniforms, while the federations' staffers have been forced to set up temporary offices to handle administrative work, such as organizing international competitions in South Korea.

Now with the start of the Aichi-Nagoya Asian Games less than two months away, the KSOC said it could not afford to wait much longer.

"By securing temporary office space and working with relevant authorities, we have been doing what we can under the circumstances but we feel that these temporary measures have their limits," the KSOC said in a statement. "We believe that our member associations must return to their offices and resume their regular operations in order for everything to normalize."

The KSOC added it is working with authorities to ensure safety and prevent unnecessary clashes at the stadium when it will try to regain access next week.

"We have asked the government and relevant agencies to swiftly take practical and responsible solutions so that our sportspeople can return to their workplaces as soon as possible," the Olympic committee added.

The KSOC said a legal review is under way to determine the specific steps to take.

"People working in sports are the biggest victims here," KSOC President Ryu Seung-min said. "The KSOC will no longer overlook damage being done to our sportspeople. We will seek to file a suit for compensation against the National Election Commission over damage caused during its management of the ballot-counting station. We will also take all possible civil and criminal action against the continued restriction of access to the workplace for our member associations. We will protect rights and interests of our sportspeople until the end."