Election watchdog exposed by its own failures

The mismanagement that marred South Korea's June 3 local elections is increasingly being traced to a deeper problem within the National Election Commission: a longstanding culture of complacency and weak accountability.

It has emerged that commission employees traveled to resort destinations including the Maldives and Kota Kinabalu in late 2023 on trips that cost taxpayers tens of millions of won. The trips were officially billed as election observation programs, but it remains unclear what lessons could have been learned from a tourism-dependent nation of just 520,000 people. Travel reports reportedly featured numerous photographs of beaches and other scenic attractions. Separate reports found that the commission had also regularly sent employees to tourist destinations such as Florence and Venice under the guise of professional development.

The timing was particularly striking. The overseas trips took place while public anger was already mounting over allegations that senior commission officials had secured jobs for their children through preferential hiring. Even as senior officials faced investigations and the commission chairman resigned, employees appeared detached from the gravity of the scandal. More recently, amid growing calls for sweeping reform after the June 3 election, an employee at the Daegu election office was caught practicing golf swings during work hours. Few examples better illustrate the collapse of internal discipline.

The same problem is evident at the top. Only two of the commission's nine members reported to work on election day. Roh Tae-ak, the former chairman responsible for election administration, was present for only about half of the legally mandated working days during the three months before the vote. A practice known internally as “election leave” has also become commonplace, with employees taking leave during nationwide elections and returning after they conclude. Despite instructions to minimize such absences ahead of this year's vote, 181 employees, representing 6% of the workforce, remained on leave. Leadership sets the tone in any organization. When senior officials are accused of using their positions to help their children gain employment while neglecting their own duties, it becomes difficult to expect discipline from rank-and-file staff.

An organization operating this way was unlikely to administer an election effectively. The unprecedented shortage of ballot papers during this year's vote, along with vote-counting errors that included omitted and duplicate entries, was less a surprise than a warning long ignored. Questions have since emerged over the commission's contracting practices after reports showed that all ballot-printing contracts were awarded without competitive bidding. Contracts worth more than 50 million won are generally required by law to undergo competitive bidding, yet election offices in major regions, including Seoul and Gyeonggi Province, reportedly bypassed that requirement. Printing costs per ballot also varied widely, with prices differing by as much as threefold between regions. The commission's record of shielding incompetence and privilege behind its status as an independent constitutional body deserves a thorough public accounting.