Protesters block ballot boxes at Seoul polling station, demanding new election

About 300 people gathered... The field was infuriated by the policy of ‘no suspension of vote counting’.

Seoul Metropolitan Election Commission's position statement: "We will not force the transfer"... Protesters' blockade continues

(Seoul = Yonhap News) Reporters Lee Eui-jin, Yang Soo-hyeon, and Yoon Min-hyuk = On the day of the June 3 local elections, protesters gathered in front of a polling place in Songpa-gu, Seoul, demanding a re-election by blocking the National Election Commission from taking out ballot boxes all night long.

According to a report by Yonhap News, as of 5 am on the 4th, a crowd of conservative YouTubers and citizens has been protesting for over 7 hours, surrounding the entrance to the 2nd polling station in Jamsil 7-dong, located at the senior center at Woosung Apartment in Songpa-gu.

The police unofficially estimated that about 300 people blocked the entrance and chanted slogans such as “election fraud,” “stop counting votes,” and “re-election.”

When the National Election Commission officially announced around 4 a.m. that this incident was not a reason for postponing or re-electing the election, the protesters became incensed again and are constantly chanting slogans such as 'Disband the National Election Commission'.

Because they were blocking the entrance all night, the Seoul National Election Commission was unable to send two ballot boxes to the counting center for about 5 hours after officially confirming the end of voting at 11:50 p.m. the previous day.

In the end, the Seoul National Election Commission announced in a statement at 4:27 a.m., "We agree with the National Election Commission. We have decided not to force the transfer of ballot boxes to the second polling station in Jamsil 7-dong."

The intention is not to force the transfer for now due to concerns about physical conflict.

However, since in principle ballot boxes must be sent to the counting center to be counted, the intention to transfer them was not discouraged.

The Seoul National Election Commission initially tried to remove the ballot boxes with the cooperation of the police, but it was not possible.

Riot team personnel were dispatched to the polling place, but withdrew from the apartment complex around 2 a.m. and are currently only maintaining a standby posture.

The protesters have heard the National Election Commission's position that it will not force the transfer, but they seem to be gathering even more, saying they cannot let down their guard.

Starting with People Power Party lawmaker Kim Jae-seop, who arrived around midnight, opposition lawmakers, including Kim Eun-hye and Shin Dong-wook, visited the polling station one after another, but were unable to resolve the deadlock.

They urged the protesters to avoid physical conflict, but criticized the National Election Commission and the Seoul Metropolitan Election Commission for deferring responsibility to each other.

Hwang Kyo-ahn, head of Freedom and Innovation, who has always called for election fraud, also visited the polling place at around 3:40 a.m.

The 2nd polling station in Jamsil 7-dong is one of the polling stations where an unprecedented situation occurred where ballot papers ran out.

Here, the voting closing time was postponed from 6 PM to 10 PM for those who received the voter list comparison slip.