▲ Chungju Mayoral Candidate Maeng Jung-seop (second from left)
The election commission will conduct a recount of ballots for the Chungju mayoral election, which was decided by a margin of 124 votes in the June 3 local elections.
The North Chungcheong Province Election Commission accepted the recount request from Democratic Party candidate Maeng Jung-seop, who lost to People Power Party candidate Lee Dong-seok, on Monday (June 22).
▲ Chungju Mayor-elect Lee Dong-seok
The recount is scheduled to take place at 1:00 p.m. on July 15 at the main auditorium of the Korea National University of Transportation.
However, the schedule may change depending on circumstances such as venue availability.
In accordance with relevant laws, the costs for the recount will be borne by candidate Maeng.
This recount will be conducted manually, without using the ballot sorting machines used during the election.
Counting staff will manually verify and sort the ballots by candidate, followed by a secondary verification using inspection counting machines similar to those used by banks to count currency.
Invalid ballots and those subject to objections will be reviewed separately by court officials, election commission members, and observers from each candidate's side.
Previously, on June 8, candidate Maeng filed an election invalidation petition with the election commission, citing reasons such as the number of invalid ballots—2,277—being excessively high compared to the vote margin between the candidates.
Maeng explained, "Given the large number of invalid ballots and the fact that the election results flipped in the early morning hours, there is a possibility that confusion arose due to the physical limitations of the counting staff."
He added, "This is not a refusal to accept the election results, but rather an attempt to re-verify whether there were any errors in the counting process."
The election commission will make a final decision on whether to accept the invalidation petition based on the results of the recount.
An official from the North Chungcheong Province Election Commission stated, "The decision was made considering that candidate Maeng has the standing to file the petition and that it was submitted properly within the legal filing period."
This marks the first time a ballot recount has been held in the North Chungcheong region since the 2014 Goesan County Council election.
The outcome of the election did not change during that recount.
(Photo: Yonhap News)
※ Please note: This article was translated by AI and may contain errors.