South Korean investigators yesterday raided the election commission over indications its officials falsified vote turnout figures in local elections last month, a spokesman said.Dozens of polling stations experienced unprecedented ballot paper shortages on the June 3 nationwide vote, the first since South Korean President Lee Jae-myung took office last year.The controversy sparked the resignation of Roh Tae-ak as chairman of the South Korean National Election Commission and demonstrations demanding an election re-run.
Signs reading “Rerun the election” and “Guarantee voting rights” are stuck onto a gate as people surround a vote-counting center to protest, in Seoul, South Korea, on June 6.
Lee ordered a “thorough” investigation.In a broader investigation into the mishap, a joint team of police and prosecutors yesterday said that it was raiding the commission’s offices over signs that officials falsified voter turnout figures.
“We have found indications that officials from the National Election Commission and the Gyeonggi Provincial Election Commission entered false voter turnout figures during the local elections,” the team’s spokesman told reporters.The team is “also conducting searches and seizures of those involved,” the spokesman said.Investigators are probing whether some officials manipulated the election statistics system to correct earlier errors in voter turnout figures on the day of the local elections.Under commission rules, any correction to reported turnout figures must go through a formal approval process.Instead, investigators suspect some officials adjusted figures across multiple polling stations to keep the totals consistent while waiting for actual turnout numbers to catch up, bypassing the required reporting process.For example, if 1,000 voters were mistakenly entered instead of 100 at one polling station, investigators believe officials redistributed the excess 900 votes across other polling stations, expecting later voting to narrow the gap, Yonhap news agency reported.Analysts have said that the commission, a constitutional body with limited external oversight, has long faced gaps in internal discipline and review mechanisms.Data that it provided to a lawmaker’s office showed that the ballot paper shortage left at least 90 voters unable to cast their ballots on June 3.The special investigation team told reporters that two election officials have been formally placed under investigation on suspicion of offenses including falsifying official electronic records.“We will examine whether the alleged manipulation extended beyond frontline staff and whether senior election officials were aware of or approved the actions,” it said.Former South Korean president Yoon Suk-yeol — now jailed and on trial for insurrection — said after declaring martial law in 2024 that the commission had ignored warnings about North Korean threats to voter data and failed to cooperate fully with intelligence agency inspections.In the wake of the June polls, groups in South Korea — including some supporters of Yoon — said that China had interfered in the country’s electoral system.University students have also joined the protests in South Korea, calling for a thorough investigation into the commission and stronger protections for voters’ rights.
