Jang Dong-hyeok calls for special prosecutor, citing 1-in-590-million odds of identical vote tallies in Incheon

People Power Party leader Jang Dong-hyeok called Tuesday for a special prosecutor investigation, citing what he described as a statistically impossible match between early vote tallies in two Incheon precincts.

Speaking at a press conference at the National Assembly, Jang said the National Election Commission initially reported ballot shortages at only 14 polling stations in Seoul, but that number grew to 67 sites nationwide within days — and by Monday had reached 140 stations where additional ballots had been sent.

Jang added that the number of polling stations where actual ballot shortages occurred had nearly doubled, from 50 to 91, while the number of stations where voting was suspended rose from 22 to 26.

He reserved particular emphasis for what he called an inexplicable coincidence in the Incheon mayoral race. In the in-precinct early vote count for Songdo 1-dong and Songdo 2-dong, People Power Party candidate Yoo Jeong-bok and Democratic Party of Korea candidate Park Chan-dae received identical vote totals in both precincts. "The probability of the vote counts matching exactly like this is 1 in 590 million," Jang said.

He said the same phenomenon appeared in the race for mayor of the proposed Gwangju-South Jeolla integrated city, where the two candidates' vote totals were identical in as many as 10 separate precincts. "Just how statistically impossible is what happened here?" he asked.

Jang said the NEC had offered no satisfactory explanation, dismissing the concerns as coincidence. "If legitimate questions are simply written off as conspiracy theories, that does nothing to resolve the problem," he said.

"Ultimately, a special prosecutor is the only answer, and we need to move on it immediately," he said, adding that the probe must be led by a prosecutor recommended by the PPP for the public to trust its findings.

Jang said Democratic Party leader Jung Chung-rae had indicated his agreement with a special prosecutor and that the two parties' floor leadership had also been in communication on the matter. "Let's meet today and discuss moving forward with a special prosecutor act," he said.

According to the NEC, Park Chan-dae received 3,030 votes and Yoo Jeong-bok received 1,440 votes in both Songdo 1-dong and Songdo 2-dong in the in-precinct early vote count for the Incheon mayoral race — identical figures in each precinct.

The Incheon Election Commission said the ballot boxes from the two precincts were processed by different equipment and personnel after arriving at the counting center. Songdo 1-dong's box went through Team 11's ballot sorting machine and review unit, while Songdo 2-dong's went through Team 4's, meaning the two were tallied independently.

Results released earlier by the NEC showed that after the first round of sorting, Songdo 1-dong had 3,016 votes for Park and 1,427 for Yoo, while Songdo 2-dong had 3,011 for Park and 1,429 for Yoo.

The NEC said the final tallies happened to match after review-eligible ballots were visually inspected and manually added by the review and tabulation unit during the counting process.

The Incheon Election Commission urged the public to refrain from spreading what it called groundless allegations against fairly counted results simply because the odds appeared slim. "Rather than reckless claims that undermine trust in election results, judgments based on objective facts are needed," it said.