Exclusive: Voting Ballot Shortage Chaos Unfolds, Yet First Meeting Held Only at Dawn the Next Day

[Anchor]

It has been confirmed that when a shortage of ballots occurred in Songpa-gu, Seoul, members of the Seoul Metropolitan Election Commission did not hold an emergency meeting to address the situation, but instead proceeded with their pre-scheduled site inspections of polling and counting stations. It was revealed that they did not gather for their first meeting until 4:00 a.m. the following day.

Reporter Kim Kwan-jin has the story.

[Reporter]

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

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 confirmed that three members, including former Chairman Oh Min-seok, were visiting 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 carrying out their routine, pre-scheduled site inspections as planned.

Even after the unprecedented situation of "voting suspension" occurred, they continued with their scheduled inspection of the 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 how long to extend the voting hours.

The five members of the Seoul Metropolitan Election Commission, including former Chairman Oh, did not gather for their first meeting until 4:00 a.m. the next day.

This was a full 12 hours after the voting suspension crisis had begun, and even then, it was understood that they only discussed a statement to be released to the media.

So, who made the decision to extend the voting hours at some polling stations, in some cases as late as 10:00 p.m. that night?

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 to ask about the response to the situation, but could not reach him.

(Video reporting: Park Hyun-chul | Video editing: Yoon Tae-ho)
※ Please note: This article was translated by AI and may contain errors.