PPP floor leader calls for emergency parliamentary investigation into ballot shortage

People Power Party floor leader Song Eon-seog on Thursday proposed that the Democratic Party of Korea join an emergency parliamentary investigation into the ballot shortage that disrupted the local elections.

Speaking at a party caucus meeting at the National Assembly, Song said the incident "is precisely the kind of matter that warrants a special prosecutor" and urged the Democratic Party to immediately pursue legislation to strengthen institutional oversight of election administration procedures and regulations.

Song also called for the immediate resignation of National Election Commission Secretary-General Heo Cheol-hun and Seoul NEC Chairman Oh Min-seok. "This is an unprecedented situation that did not even occur under the Liberal Party regime of the 1950s," he said. "Regardless of the election outcome, this cannot simply be brushed aside or overlooked."

He said ballot papers must be stored and handed over by the day before voting, and that rushing to transport new ones on election day itself "appears to be a violation of the law." He also argued that voters who waited in long lines due to the ballot shortage and ultimately gave up had their right to political participation violated.

Song said that once the gravity of the situation was recognized, the proper course of action would have been to halt the vote count, hold a meeting and then decide whether to resume — but that failing to do so created "a highly abnormal situation in which counting and voting proceeded simultaneously."

He also directed criticism at President Lee Jae-myung, saying the election process had already confirmed that Lee had "chosen the path of a president who divides the people rather than unites them — a president for only half the nation, not all of it." Song said he could not understand why Lee remained silent on such a grave matter while "intervening in every corner of state affairs and micromanaging everything."

Song also demanded that the NEC release several sets of documents: the basis for its guideline to print ballots at 50 percent of remaining eligible voters after excluding early voters; the size of the budget secured for ballot printing and actual spending; the task order documents related to printing; and the method used to award the ballot printing contract.

"I want to make clear that these materials represent the bare minimum needed to address the public's doubts about this situation," Song said, urging the NEC to submit the documents by the end of Thursday.