South Korean Parliamentary Committee to Inspect Election Ballot Shortage Sites

A parliamentary special committee looking into ballot shortages during the June local elections will conduct its first on-site inspection this week, officials said Wednesday.

During a plenary meeting earlier in the day, the committee approved a plan to inspect the Songpa District Election Commission and the Olympic Park Handball Gymnasium in southern Seoul at 10 a.m. Thursday as part of its investigation into the voting and ballot-counting process.

The committee plans to send an official letter requesting police cooperation ahead of the inspection, considering the ongoing protest at the Olympic Park area over the ballot shortages.

The second on-site inspection, originally scheduled for next Wednesday, has been moved up to Tuesday, though its location has yet to be decided, according to committee officials.

During Wednesday's meeting, Kang Dong-wan, the acting secretary-general of the National Election Commission (NEC), said the commission was open to the idea of allowing representatives from the ruling and main opposition parties, as well as civic groups, to inspect the ballot boxes stored at the stadium, which served as a ballot counting site on election day.

"We have concluded that it would be difficult to resolve the issue on our own," he said.

Protests claiming election fraud and demanding a rerun of the elections began June 5, two days after ballot shortages temporarily suspended voting at 26 polling stations across the nation. Protesters have since blockaded the stadium in a bid to prevent the removal of ballot boxes inside.

The National Assembly launched the 18-member committee last month to investigate the cause of the shortage of ballots.

The committee will hold its first hearing on July 14 and a second hearing on July 22 before adopting its final report on its investigation. It has said it will file complaints against any witnesses who fail to appear at the hearings or are found to have given false testimony.