Na Kyung-won: Lee, election commission probing themselves like 'drunk driver testing own blood alcohol'

People Power Party lawmaker Na Kyung-won on Tuesday called the responses of the National Election Commission and President Lee Jae Myung to the unprecedented ballot shortage during the June 3 local elections "a self-absolving black comedy," urging an opposition-led parliamentary investigation and the appointment of a special prosecutor.

Writing on Facebook that day, Na said the election commission had set up a fact-finding panel under the banner of outside experts, while the president had ordered the formation of a joint police-prosecution investigation unit.

"It is wrong from the outset for the election commission — which caused this mess — to investigate itself, and for an administration that has not offered a single proper apology for trampling on citizens' voting rights to conduct a self-investigation using its own police and prosecutors," she said. "It is like a drunk driver measuring his own blood alcohol level, or a student caught cheating grading his own exam paper. Ultimately, they are trying to sweep this under the rug through self-probes."

Turning to the election commission, Na pointed to its revised figures on the number of polling stations that received additional ballot papers, saying the agency "made a sloppy announcement without properly grasping the facts from the outset." She added, "What nerve does such an agency have to talk about a self-investigation?"

She then warned that allowing the election commission to conduct its own fact-finding and investigation again — as had happened following the 2022 "basket voting" incident — would be "tantamount to handing it an official blank check to openly wreck South Korea's elections." She urged that "self-serving fact-finding and self-investigations that deceive the public must stop immediately."

Na then said, "We must launch an opposition-led parliamentary investigation and special prosecutor right now," adding that only an objective and fair probe could reveal the full picture of the disaster to the public.

She also posed the question of whether the ballot shortage and the flawed election would be buried under a self-investigation or thoroughly examined through a parliamentary probe and special prosecutor. She doubled down: "The choice made now will determine the standard of South Korea's elections and the quality of its democracy going forward."

Meanwhile, President Lee had previously expressed deep regret over the ballot shortage, saying "citizens' right to vote is a constitutional right that must not be restricted or infringed upon for any reason, and this incident is a serious matter that has undermined the very foundation of popular sovereignty."

Lee had particularly called on the election commission to demonstrate a strong commitment to reform and overhaul. At the same time, he directed the National Assembly to pursue a parliamentary investigation to establish the facts and prevent a recurrence, and ordered the government to form a joint police-prosecution investigation unit to clarify accountability and uncover the full circumstances of the incident.