Cheong Wa Dae (Im Se-jun/The Korea Herald). The presidential office urged the election watchdog Wednesday to take “responsible measures” after the agency acknowledged ballot shortages at 14 polling stations in Seoul during the local elections and issued a public apology.The National Election Commission admitted that ballots had run short at 12 polling stations in Songpa-gu and one each in Gangnam-gu and Gwangjin-gu, while issuing a public apology over the incident.“As a constitutional institution tasked with guaranteeing the people’s right to political participation, we ask the National Election Commission to take responsible measures to ensure there are no disruptions to some residents’ exercise of voting rights and to ballot-counting management,” senior presidential spokesperson Kang Yu-jung said in a statement.“Cheong Wa Dae is closely monitoring the series of developments with seriousness,” Kang added.The NEC is set to convene an emergency meeting at midnight to discuss its response to the ballot shortage, Heo Cheol-hoon, the NEC’s secretary-general, said during a meeting with Rep. Jang Dong-hyeok, chair of the main opposition People Power Party.The main opposition People Power Party visited the NEC headquarters late Wednesday in protest, demanding a halt to vote counting and calling for a new election. The party also warned it would withdraw all of its election observers unless counting was suspended and said it planned to file a lawsuit seeking to invalidate the election.