Exclusive: Election Commission's Baffling Response Amid Ballot Paper Shortage

[Anchor]

When a ballot paper shortage occurred in Songpa-gu, Seoul, on the day of the June 3 local elections, what were the members of the Seoul Metropolitan Election Commission, who should have been addressing the crisis, doing? Our investigation has confirmed that instead of holding an emergency meeting, they proceeded with their scheduled field inspections of polling and counting stations. The Seoul election commissioners did not gather for the first time until 4:00 a.m. the following day.

This is an exclusive report by Kim Kwan-jin.

[Reporter]

Of the eight members of the Seoul Metropolitan Election Commission, only five, including then-Chairman Oh Min-seok, were on duty on June 3, the day of the local elections.

What were they doing after 4:12 p.m., when voting was suspended for over 20 minutes at a polling station in Songpa-gu, Seoul, due to a shortage of ballots?

SBS investigation confirmed that three members, including former Chairman Oh, visited a polling station in Sangdo 4-dong, Dongjak-gu, Seoul, from 3:00 p.m. to 4:30 p.m. to observe the voting process.

They were simply carrying out their previously scheduled routine field inspections.

Despite the unprecedented situation of "suspended voting," they continued with their planned schedule, which included inspecting a ballot counting station at the SETEC exhibition center in Gangnam-gu, Seoul, from 9:00 p.m. to 10:30 p.m.

It was confirmed that no plenary meeting was convened to receive reports on the ballot shortage or to decide on how long to extend the voting hours.

The five Seoul election commissioners, including former Chairman Oh, did not meet to discuss the situation until 4:00 a.m. the next day.

This was a full 12 hours after the voting suspension crisis began, and it was found that even that meeting was held to discuss a statement to be released to the press.

Then, who made the decision to extend the voting hours for some polling stations, in some cases until 10:00 p.m.?

The Seoul Metropolitan Election Commission told SBS, "The committee decided to extend the voting hours after discussions among working-level staff," adding, "The final decision-maker was then-Chairman Oh Min-seok."

However, they did not provide any records or documents to verify the exact approval process.

SBS attempted to contact former Chairman Oh Min-seok for comment regarding the response to the crisis, but he could not be reached.

Reported by Kim Kwan-jin | Video by Park Hyun-chul | Video Editing by Yoon Tae-ho | Produced by SBS Digital News
※ Please note: This article was translated by AI and may contain errors.