12 Voters Unable to Cast Ballots in Jamsil; NEC to Proceed with 5.5 Billion Won in 'Special Bonuses' Despite Controversy

It has been confirmed that 12 voters who received waiting tickets at the Jamsil 7-dong No. 2 polling station in Songpa-gu, Seoul, were ultimately unable to cast their ballots during the June 3 local elections, which were marred by a shortage of ballot papers.

Cho Hyeon-wook, head of the fact-finding committee at the National Election Commission (NEC), stated in a radio interview today, "These 12 individuals waited to vote but eventually left without casting their ballots." He pointed out, "The NEC's complacent situational awareness and poor reporting system exacerbated the problem."

According to Cho, when ballot papers ran out at the Jamsil 7-dong No. 2 polling station on the afternoon of the election, June 3, a total of 175 waiting tickets were issued to voters on-site.

While voting proceeded for those holding the tickets, 17 of the 175 tickets were not recovered.

The NEC extended voting hours until 10:00 p.m., but investigations revealed that only 5 of the remaining ticket holders cast their ballots, while the other 12 did not.

Even as circumstances continue to emerge showing that basic election management has been inadequate not only in this election but in previous ones as well, it has been confirmed that the NEC has paid out 10.277 billion won in "special bonuses"—a form of gratuity—to employees at Grade 5 and below over the past five years.

The NEC is the only government agency that maintains a regulation for special bonuses, which essentially function as "pocket money" for its staff.

In particular, the commission plans to expand the eligibility for these payments this year, distributing over 5.5 billion won in total. It was revealed that while the NEC initially stated that only 200 million won was allocated in the national budget, it actually secured an additional 5.3 billion won from local government funds to cover the amount.

According to the enforcement decree of the National Election Commission Act, Grade 5 employees at the NEC are entitled to 150,000 won per month in special bonuses for up to five months before and after an election, while those at Grade 6 and below receive 100,000 won per month for the same period.

Despite the ballot paper shortage, the NEC maintains its policy to pay out the remaining funds as scheduled, arguing that these allowances are paid out uniformly regardless of performance.

Reported by Lee Hyeon-yeong | Video by Jang Yu-jin | Graphics by Lee Jeong-ju | Produced by SBS Digital News
※ Please note: This article was translated by AI and may contain errors.