PPP pushes to abolish early voting, merge election commissions

The People Power Party's special committee on investigating violations of civic voting rights in the June 3 elections and reforming election management said Tuesday it would pursue legislation to abolish the early voting system and consolidate election commissions at all levels, following a ballot shortage during the June 3 local elections.

The committee discussed the package of bills — which it calls the "civic voting rights protection legislation" — at its third meeting at the National Assembly on Tuesday.

The proposed legislation would also establish an independent audit committee separate from the National Election Commission and create new whistleblower protection provisions for NEC staff.

Rep. Park Dae-chul, the committee chairman, said at a briefing Tuesday that the audit committee would be empowered to demand disciplinary action, refer cases for investigation and file complaints, giving it independent audit and oversight functions with compulsory investigative authority.

To strengthen the fairness and efficiency of voting, ballot counting and overall election management, the legislation would introduce criminal penalties for five categories of conduct: destruction or falsification of election management records, obstruction of audits, retaliation against whistleblowers, tampering with video records, and unauthorized disclosure of confidential information.

"We will draft an initial proposal, report it to the party leadership and a general assembly of lawmakers, and finalize it from there," Park said. "We will secure approval at a general assembly of lawmakers soon so that the legislation reflects the public's demand — both to address the disenfranchisement crisis and to reform the NEC at a level tantamount to dismantling it."

Park added that the committee had agreed that acting NEC Chairman Wi Cheol-hwan must resign, saying vote-count manipulation had occurred across local, general and presidential elections alike, making recovery under the current NEC impossible. "We have resolved to strongly demand that Wi be immediately detained and investigated, and that he be made the No. 1 target of a special prosecutor's investigation," he said.

Earlier in his opening remarks, Park said the controversy over the NEC's alleged manipulation of voter tallies was "growing like a typhoon." "The deliberate manipulation by certain individuals is not mere negligence — it is fraud," he said. "Suspicions are mounting that not only the local elections but also the most recent general election and presidential election have been tainted. This cannot be dismissed as the misconduct of a few employees."

He called for an immediate launch of an opposition-led special prosecution to investigate the NEC's computer systems and servers from past elections, saying the probe must "root out the full extent of the NEC's organized and deliberate manipulation." "A wholesale reform of the NEC — from its organizational structure to its voting and ballot-counting systems — is necessary," he said.