Lawmakers inspect Songpa ballot storage site

Lawmakers from both the ruling and opposition parties on the National Assembly's special committee investigating the ballot shortage during the June 3 local elections entered the Handball Gymnasium at Olympic Park in Seoul's Songpa District on Thursday to inspect the site. It was the committee's first visit in 27 days after protesters began blocking access to the ballot-counting center on June 5. The gymnasium served as the counting center for Songpa District, where polling stations ran short of ballots on the election day.

Protesters tried to prevent the committee from entering the facility, prompting police to deploy about 1,500 officers to clear the entrances, remove obstacles and secure access. Committee members spent about 15 minutes inspecting two basement storage rooms where about 380 ballot boxes from across Songpa District, 2.47 million ballots, ballot logs and vote-count records remain in storage because they have not yet been transferred. They also checked whether closed-circuit television cameras were providing full coverage of the storage areas. The inspection found no indication that any sealed ballot boxes had been damaged or moved.

The committee used the visit to criticize the Songpa District election commission over what members described as serious lapses in election administration while discussing the need for an independent counsel investigation and a recount. Committee Chair Yoon Sang-hyun of the People Power Party said during a visit to the district election commission that the incident "cannot be brushed aside as a simple administrative mistake or miscalculation. It amounts to a betrayal of democracy that deprived citizens of their right to vote." Rep. Yoon Kun-young of the ruling Democratic Party of Korea, the committee's floor leader, also criticized the election commission. "You can see the answer simply by coming here," he said. "The population increased because of redevelopment and reconstruction projects, but the election commission failed to account for it. That is nothing short of incompetence."


조승연 cho@donga.com