SEOUL: The head of South Korea's National Election Commission (NEC) said on Friday (Jun 5) that he would step down to take responsibility for a shortage of ballot papers in some districts in Wednesday's local elections that disrupted voting and triggered a public outcry.Rho Tae-ak said there could be no excuse for the failure that harmed the public's interest and commitment to engage in the democratic process, and that understandably raised distrust in the election process.Rho, who has led the independent commission by convention as a Supreme Court justice as well as its large secretariat that oversees all elections in the country, said a panel of outside experts would be set up to investigate the cause of the mishap, and that he would accept the consequences of its findings.At 50 polling stations, ballot papers ran out and had to be re-supplied, while voting was disrupted at 22 polling stations due to delays in receiving supplies, an NEC official later told a briefing.
There were about 14,300 voting stations around the country.
Protesters call for the suspension of ballot counting due to a shortage of ballot papers outside a counting station in Seoul on Jun 5, 2026. (Photo: AFP/Pedro Pardo)
