The Election Commission "to convene emergency meeting tomorrow"... Ruling party says "complacent," Opposition says "Ministry of the Interior must take responsibility"

Election Commission "Once Again Apologizes for Shortcomings"
Criticism Pours In for Reckless Handling Leading to Self-Inflicted Crisis

[Image source=Yonhap News]

[Asia Economy Reporter Lee Hyun-joo] The National Election Commission announced on the 6th that it convened an emergency committee at 10 a.m. on the 7th and will prepare measures to ensure that voters confirmed or quarantined with COVID-19 can vote smoothly on the main voting day on the 9th.

Park Chan-jin, Deputy Secretary-General of the Election Commission, said at the National Assembly's Public Administration and Security Committee briefing on current issues, "We humbly accept the various criticisms raised during the early voting process yesterday," adding, "We should have prepared thoroughly, and I bow my head once again to apologize for the shortcomings."

On the same day, Deputy Secretary-General Park was criticized by lawmakers from both ruling and opposition parties for not having prepared materials as he was still assessing the situation that occurred on-site the previous day.

Park Wan-soo, the opposition party's secretary of the Public Administration and Security Committee and a member of the People Power Party, said, "A day has passed, but they still have not grasped the situation, and if they say they will do better in the future, how can we trust them?" He criticized, "The National Election Commission does not know the field. They only think from above, give orders, and end it."

Seo Young-kyo, Chairperson of the Public Administration and Security Committee, also reprimanded, "The Election Commission still seems complacent," adding, "They have relied on past good performance, but they should clearly disclose the parts that cause public suspicion first. They need to act quickly on what is necessary."

[Image source=Yonhap News]

Earlier, Representative Park said this incident "violated the constitutional provision that voting must be direct and secret," and "this fault is not only the responsibility of the Election Commission but also a problem that the Ministry of the Interior and Safety and the government, which are responsible for election management, must take responsibility for."

Baek Hye-ryun, a Democratic Party member of the Public Administration and Security Committee, said, "If they could not predict the (voter turnout), that is an even bigger problem," and added, "Above all, I want to point out the issue that voters could not directly put their ballots into the ballot box."

The controversy over the Election Commission's poor election management is criticized as being self-inflicted due to inadequate situation prediction and complacent response from the start. The manual distributed to election officials regarding voting for confirmed and quarantined voters lacked sufficient explanation, making the disaster foreseeable.

The biggest issue pointed out during early voting the previous day was that voters could not directly put their ballots into the ballot box. The Election Commission caused controversy by attempting to transport ballots of confirmed patients in plastic bags, paper boxes, or plastic baskets. It appears the Election Commission tried to comply with Article 151, Paragraph 2 of the Public Official Election Act, which stipulates that "in an election, two ballot boxes cannot be used simultaneously in each precinct for each electoral district." However, critics argue that if the Election Commission recognized the legal provision prohibiting the simultaneous use of two ballot boxes, they should have prepared separate polling stations for confirmed and quarantined voters from the outset.

The manual distributed internally by the Election Commission was also inadequate. The early voting guidelines and voting management manual distributed to internal members of the Election Commission reportedly consisted of only five pages. The section on ballot boxes ended with the last seven lines of the final page. Furthermore, there was no prior public notice that voters could not directly put their ballots into the ballot box, which further spread confusion on-site.

This content was produced with the assistance of AI translation services.