'Stop using local government workers as cannon fodder,' Songpa-gu civil servant fumes

A post by a Songpa-gu civil servant deployed to assist with election operations has gone viral after the official blasted the National Election Commission as an "incompetent organization," amid the fallout from an unprecedented ballot paper shortage that marred the 9th nationwide simultaneous local elections.

The post, titled "I absolutely cannot manage elections anymore," appeared Wednesday on the participation bulletin board of the Korean Government Employees' Union.

The author, identified only as civil servant A from Songpa-gu, wrote: "I'll keep this short — Songpa-gu employees can no longer take part in election work." The official sharply criticized the election commission, asking how not a single commission staffer could have shown up at the Songpa-gu polling station while the crisis unfolded. "I can no longer work with an incompetent organization," the post read.

Civil servant A demanded that the election commission handle election operations on its own. "Stop using local government civil servants as cannon fodder," the official wrote.

The post also called for staff to be allowed to go home, noting that local government workers were expected to report to work as normal on Friday.

Online commenters who came across the post were largely critical of the commission. Reactions included: "They dump everything on local governments and then wash their hands of it when things go wrong"; "Election commission staff do nothing while local government workers are run into the ground"; "Not a single election commission employee showed up? Did they all go on vacation together?"; and "The election commission needs to stop freeloading."

The shortage unfolded Wednesday during the 9th nationwide simultaneous local elections, when polling stations in parts of Seoul — including Songpa-gu, Gangnam-gu and Gwangjin-gu — ran out of ballot papers, forcing some voters to stop casting their ballots. Additional ballot papers were later supplied and the voting deadline was extended to 10 p.m.

In response, the People Power Party called Wednesday for a halt to vote counting and a re-election, but the commission announced at 4 a.m. Thursday that the situation did not meet the legal threshold for postponing or re-running an election under the Public Official Election Act. The commission apologized, saying it "deeply feels its grave responsibility for causing great disappointment and concern to voters who visited polling stations to exercise their right to vote and participate in democracy." It said it had decided to "make every possible effort to investigate the cause of this incident and establish measures to prevent a recurrence as soon as vote counting is complete."

Despite the apology, dozens of citizens gathered Thursday at the No. 2 polling station in Jamsil 7-dong, Songpa-gu — located at Jamsil Woosung Apartment — chanting slogans including "Fraudulent election!," "Re-vote!" and "Dissolve the election commission!"

Later Thursday afternoon, a conservative civic group staged a protest rally outside the National Election Commission headquarters in Gwacheon, Gyeonggi Province, denouncing the ballot paper shortage.

배우 한정수 “민주당이 진 선거, 반성하라” 일침

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