Election agency budgeted for 110 percent voter turnout, printed only half Related Article

Audio report: written by reporters, read by AI Korea's election agency is facing a deepening credibility crisis after a ballot shortage on Election Day left voters at over a dozen polling stations unable to cast their votes, with new figures showing the agency had budgeted to print enough ballots for 110 percent of eligible voters but printed only half that number. The incident has left political parties on both sides calling for accountability from the National Election Commission (NEC), and experts say it has exposed deep structural problems in an agency that has operated for decades with little external oversight. Fourteen polling stations in Seoul ran out of ballot sheets on Wednesday, forcing voting to continue until 10 p.m. — four hours past the original closing time. Twelve of the affected stations were in Songpa District, southern Seoul, with one each in Gangnam District, southern Seoul, and Gwangjin District, eastern Seoul. The extended hours meant some voters were still casting ballots as live vote counts were being broadcast on television nationwide. Chaos continued as a crowd gathered outside one of the stations that had run out of ballots, in Jamsil 7-dong in Songpa District, physically blocking ballot boxes from being removed and demanding that counting be halted and the election rerun. "This was a serious situation in which voting was distorted, with some voters casting their ballots while watching exit poll results and vote-counting updates," Lee Hyun-chool, a professor of political science at Konkuk University, said. The political backlash from both left and right was swift. The main conservative opposition People Power Party (PPP) leader Jang Dong-hyeok visited the NEC in the early hours of Thursday morning and met with NEC chairperson Rho Tae-ak, demanding that counting be suspended and the election held again. After counting concluded, PPP's election campaign committee co-chairman Song Eon-seok said he had "proposed to the Democratic Party of Korea that an emergency parliamentary investigation into the NEC be conducted." Oh Se-hoon, who won reelection as Seoul mayor, said Thursday that "strict accountability must follow without fail." The ruling liberal Democratic Party (DP) pressed for the resignation of NEC Secretary General Heo Cheol-hoon. "We must consider whether the secretary-general, who bears responsibility for the NEC's administration, should step down," Cho Seung-rae, the party's secretary general, told reporters. The NEC issued a public apology on Wednesday evening. On Thursday, it announced it would establish a committee to investigate what happened. However, it drew a line at calls for a rerun, saying the incident "does not constitute grounds for postponing or rerunning an election under the Public Official Election Act. How did the shortage happen? The NEC said the number of printed ballot sheets in Songpa District was equivalent to 50 percent of its registered voters. Gwangjin District and Gangnam District, where polling was also suspended, printed ballots for 50 percent and 55 percent of their electorates, respectively. This was in line with NEC guidelines instructing regional commissions to secure "a minimum of 50 percent of registered voters" worth of ballots for Election Day. Printed ballots are distributed to polling stations, with reserves held at district election offices to be dispatched where and when needed. "The projection of voter turnout exceeding 70 percent was based on the combined early-voting rate and election-day turnout, but heavier-than-expected crowds at multiple polling stations led to confusion and disruptions," said an NEC official. But the controversy deepened when it emerged that the NEC had received budget from local governments on the basis that it planned to "print ballots equivalent to 1.1 times the total number of registered voters" — yet printed only half that number. "Since a supporter of a particular political party leader seized unused ballot papers at...