Zero NEC Officials at Polling Stations: No Emergency Response Manuals Provided

[Anchor]

On the day of the local election, more than 190,000 personnel were deployed to polling stations across the country to manage the voting process. However, no officials from the National Election Commission (NEC) were stationed at the sites. Furthermore, the training materials distributed by the NEC to on-site personnel did not include any protocols for responding to emergency situations, such as a shortage of ballots.

Ha Jeongyeon reports.

[Reporter]

This is the 92-page voting management manual distributed to personnel deployed to polling stations before the June 3 local election.

It covers basic voting management duties, as well as how to respond to specific incidents such as photography inside the polling station, the carrying of weapons, or bringing pets.

However, there are no guidelines for responding to emergency situations, such as a shortage of ballots.

On the day of the election, approximately 193,000 voting management personnel were deployed to 14,288 polling stations nationwide.

Local government officials made up the largest group with about 98,000, followed by 25,000 school staff and 4,000 national government officials.

Employees from financial institutions and public agencies were also drafted.

In contrast, not a single official from the National Election Commission was deployed to the polling stations.

The total authorized staff of the NEC nationwide is 3,034.

The reason given was that there were not enough personnel to station them at every polling station.

NEC staff at each city, county, and district office, averaging around seven people, managed the polling stations collectively from their offices on election day while receiving reports from the field, and they also handled ballot counting duties in the afternoon.

Ultimately, this means that temporarily mobilized public officials had to respond to emergency situations on the fly, without proper manuals or training.

[Cho Jin-man / Professor of Political Science and Diplomacy, Duksung Women's University: It seems clear that it would not be easy for the public officials or workers on the ground to make responsible decisions in such situations.]

Public officials who were deployed to the polling stations, but are not affiliated with the NEC, say that the responsibility for any on-site incidents is effectively being shifted onto them.

[Jeong Hae-chan / Secretary General of the Namhae-gun Branch, Korean Government Employees' Union: We are expected to respond with only four hours of training. The control tower has collapsed, and the structure is such that the organizations that came to help with NEC tasks have to take on all the responsibility.]

While strengthening manuals and training are being discussed as primary alternatives, critics point out that overall election management affairs must be reformed in a way that clarifies the accountability of the NEC.

Reported by Ha Jeongyeon | Video by Kang Dong-cheol | Video Editing by Shin Se-eun | Graphics by Lee Jun-ho | Data provided by the office of Rep. Yang Bu-nam (Democratic Party of Korea)
※ Please note: This article was translated by AI and may contain errors.