Parties move to form special probe panel as election commission failures mount

Evidence of sweeping mismanagement at the National Election Commission continues to surface in the wake of the ballot shortage crisis that struck the June 3 local elections, as the ruling and opposition parties push to quickly establish a special parliamentary investigation committee.

The Democratic Party of Korea plans to put the parliamentary investigation plan to a vote at a plenary session on June 18, according to political sources. The investigation must clear several procedural steps — including a plenary report on the formal request, adoption of the special committee's investigation plan, and plenary approval — before it can formally begin.

Han Byung-do, the Democratic Party's floor leader, and People Power Party floor leader Jeong Jeom-sik met Thursday afternoon under the auspices of National Assembly Speaker Jo Jeong-sik, reaching a shared understanding on the need to move quickly on adopting the investigation plan. Observers say the two parties could reach a compromise relatively soon through negotiations.

Kim Han-gyu, the Democratic Party's senior floor policy deputy leader, said on a KBS program Friday that his party had no reason to insist on chairing the special committee. "This is a matter involving the election commission, a constitutionally independent body — it is not a problem of the Lee Jae Myung administration," he said. "I think we will consult appropriately with the People Power Party and that things will work out well."

Jeong held his first press briefing since taking office Friday and proposed that his party chair the special committee, with seats split evenly between the two parties. "It is not right for the National Assembly to delay forming the special investigation committee over an incident in which citizens' right to vote was so brutally trampled," he said.

However, the two sides diverged on the question of a special prosecutor. Kim said special prosecutor discussions could proceed in parallel, but added that the parliamentary investigation and the joint investigative team needed to move quickly first to avoid wasting time.

Jeong took a sharper line, saying the Democratic Party's position of waiting for investigation results before pursuing a special prosecutor amounted to obstructing the search for the truth.

Meanwhile, signs of systemic mismanagement by the election commission during the vote continue to draw scrutiny. The externally constituted Committee to Investigate the Ballot Shortage Crisis held another session Friday, focusing its inquiry on the shortage that occurred in Seoul's Songpa-gu.

Committee chair Cho Hyun-wook said at a briefing Thursday that 17,000 unnumbered ballots should have been delivered to the Songpa-gu election commission but only 2,000 were. A review of online chat logs involving Songpa-gu election commission staff and committee secretaries showed the commission failed to respond swiftly even as chaos engulfed polling stations, he said.

Compounding the picture, it emerged that a vote-counting official in the Gyeonggi Province superintendent of education race had entered results incorrectly — following a similar error already disclosed in the North Jeolla Province superintendent race. Election commissions in both regions issued public apologies, saying results had been corrected in accordance with proper procedures.

Prime Minister Kim Min-seok, presiding over an emergency ministerial meeting on violations of citizens' voting rights at the Government Sejong Complex on Thursday, said there were undoubtedly citizens calling for the election commission to be dissolved if it continued to operate this way. "The election commission must wake up completely," he said.

Wi Cheol-hwan, acting chairman of the National Election Commission, said the commission had failed to distribute ballots properly across 146 polling stations in Songpa-gu, even though roughly 42,000 ballots remained in the district overall. "That failure to allocate ballots by individual polling station was a deeply painful mistake," he said. "I again offer my sincerest apologies to the public for the damage done to their right to vote."