Students before school, office workers before work: Ballot protest enters fifth day

A protest that erupted over a ballot shortage during the June 3 local elections has entered its fifth consecutive day at Olympic Park. Around 9 a.m. Tuesday, roughly 100 demonstrators remained at the site — a visibly smaller crowd than in previous days.

Numbers could surge again by afternoon and evening, however. On Monday, the crowd grew sharply after midday, with office workers joining after their shifts to push the evening turnout to nearly 3,000.

At around 9 a.m. Tuesday, about 120 people were gathered in front of the handball arena in Olympic Park, Songpa-gu, Seoul — a number small enough to count by hand. Demonstrators repeatedly chanted slogans including "Re-election — fraudulent vote" and "Hand-count the early ballots."

Appearing conscious of the thinned crowd, participants spread out into a wide formation, waving South Korean flags and shouting slogans. Nearby, some who had stayed through the night lay sleeping on mats.

Others stopped by briefly before heading to work. Park, a 37-year-old who said he had taken leave over the weekend and Monday to stay at the site, stood up to leave for work Tuesday morning. "When I got up to go to work, people around me applauded and said I'd worked hard," he said. "There are restrooms here but nowhere to wash up, so my hair has gotten greasy."

Some students also dropped in before class. Kim Seong-yun, 26, a graduate student, said he had to leave soon for a seminar. "I'm trying to stay and participate for as long as I can," he said.

High school students who cannot yet vote also showed up to make their voices heard. An 18-year-old second-year student at nearby Dongbuk High School and a friend said they had been there since 5 a.m. "Our parents think we left early to study," the student, surnamed Kim, said. "We have to be at school by 8 and then go to hagwon in the evening, so right now is the only time we can be here."

Kim added that a civics class had taught him suffrage is a fundamental right — and that seeing it go unprotected made him angry. He laughed off the hardship: "Breakfast was three fish-cake skewers from a truck here."

A homemaker who came specifically to fill the morning gap also joined the crowd. A woman in her 50s surnamed Choi, who traveled from Cheonan, said she felt it was her duty to hold the line while workers were at their offices and students were in school. "I'm deliberately working harder in the morning to keep the spot going, even if just a little," she said.

The afternoon crowd is expected to grow. On Monday, roughly 150 people were present in the morning, but the number climbed to nearly 3,000 by evening.

By around 6 p.m. Monday, approximately 2,700 people had gathered, according to an unofficial police estimate, and the crowd kept growing. As the evening commute ended, office workers in suits and work clothes streamed in from Olympic Park station.

Lee, 36, stood quietly among the protesters, looking slightly out of place and not joining in the chants. "This is my first protest in my life," he said. "I came so I won't be ashamed in front of my daughter. I skipped dinner and came straight here after work from Ilsan."

Office workers were not the only ones arriving after daytime commitments. Park, a 24-year-old junior at Yonsei University, said he attended classes during the day and came in the evening. "I thought a large turnout was needed for our message to get through," he said.

Park said that while some dissenting views had appeared on the university's online community boards, most people around him shared a strong sense that citizens' basic rights had not been protected.

Another office worker, Ahn, 30, said he had been checking news from the protest throughout the day. "I was worried the momentum would fizzle out, so I came straight here after work," he said. "As long as the protest continues, I plan to come every evening."

The demonstration, now in its fifth day, has yet to find a resolution. About 380 ballot boxes from Songpa-gu, along with the ballots themselves, remain inside the arena following the count. All National Election Commission staff have withdrawn from the site.

Police have deployed riot units to prepare for any unexpected incidents. "We are maintaining around 350 riot officers to keep order at the scene," a police official said.