No NEC Staff, No Emergency Protocols at Polling Stations

[Anchor]

More than 190,000 personnel were mobilized to manage voting on the day of the June 3 local elections. However, not a single official from the National Election Commission (NEC) was deployed to the polling stations. The training materials distributed by the NEC in advance did not even include manuals for these temporarily mobilized public servants to handle emergency situations, such as a shortage of ballot papers.

Reporter Ha Jeongyeon has the story.

[Reporter]

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

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

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

On the day of the main vote, approximately 193,000 personnel were deployed to 14,288 polling stations across the country.

Local government officials accounted for the largest portion at 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, no staff from the National Election Commission were deployed to the polling stations.

The total number of NEC staff nationwide is 3,034.

The reason given was a lack of manpower to cover the polling stations.

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

This means that the temporarily mobilized public servants had to respond to emergencies 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 servants or staff working on-site to make responsible decisions.]

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

[Jung Hae-chan / Secretary General, Namhae-gun Branch of the Korean Government Employees' Union: They are saying we have 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 the NEC's work have to take on everything themselves.]

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

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