35 Election Petitions Filed; NEC Criticized for 'Bonus Parties' Despite Past Voting Controversies

[Anchor]

Ten days have passed since the local elections, but the turmoil surrounding the process and results has yet to subside. A total of 35 "election petitions" challenging the results have been filed so far, sparked by the recent shortage of ballot papers. Depending on the decisions made by the National Election Commission (NEC) regarding these petitions, a series of related lawsuits is expected to follow.

We begin today, June 13, with a report from Son Hyeong-an.

[Reporter]

In the wake of the ballot paper shortage, a total of 35 election petitions challenging the validity of the June 3 local elections have been filed to date.

Seven of these petitions, including two regarding the Seoul mayoral race and one regarding the Seoul superintendent of education election, were filed with the National Election Commission. The remaining 28, concerning local government heads and other positions, were filed with regional election commissions.

The deadline for filing election petitions is June 17. The election commissions that received these petitions must decide whether to invalidate the elections in question within 60 days.

As the conservative opposition continues to argue that voters' rights were infringed upon and calls for re-elections, the number of election petitions is expected to rise further.

Meanwhile, it has been revealed that the National Election Commission generously awarded internal performance bonuses and commendations even during 2022, when it faced severe public criticism for the so-called "basket voting" controversy.

That year, the NEC executed all but 1,000 won of its 8.3 billion won (8,304,970,000 won) budget for performance-based bonuses. Furthermore, 60 NEC employees received commendations from the NEC Chairperson for their contributions to the presidential and local elections.

In April, just two months before the June 3 local elections, a plan was also established to select 110 "meritorious public officials" for their contributions to the election.

The National Election Commission stated that the plan to select meritorious public officials was suspended following the ballot paper shortage incident.

The commission also explained that the 2022 performance bonuses were paid within the allocated budget.

While the NEC maintains that it did not violate any regulations, it is difficult to avoid criticism that the commission, which has caused various controversies in every election, has been more focused on rewarding itself than on self-reflection.

(Video reporting: Lee Seung-hwan, Shin Dong-hwan | Video editing: Jeon Min-gyu | Design: Park Tae-young | Data provided by the office of Rep. Park Jun-tae of the People Power Party)
※ Please note: This article was translated by AI and may contain errors.