Bar Association: "Poor Management of Early Voting Severely Undermines Voting Rights... Government Must Conduct Thorough Investigation"

[Image source=Yonhap News]

[Asia Economy Reporter Kim Hyung-min] The Korean Bar Association (KBA) urged the government authorities to step in, investigate, and take action regarding the incident during the early voting for the presidential election held on the 4th and 5th, where the ballots of COVID-19 confirmed patients were poorly managed.

On the 6th, the KBA issued a statement expressing deep concern, saying, "This incident, which disregards the fundamental principles of democracy?direct voting and secret ballot?seriously undermines the sovereign right to vote and may cause distrust. We are shocked by the fact that marked ballots, which contain the will of the people’s sovereignty, were carelessly stored in paper boxes, shopping bags, or baskets, and that election assistants prevented voters from directly placing their ballots into the ballot box, instead receiving and handling them on their behalf."

They continued, "Democracy begins with the people's secret and direct voting," and criticized, "The conduct of election affairs in this manner is a crude and outdated election administration that raises serious concerns about the awareness of the National Election Commission and parts of our society regarding democratic basic order."

Furthermore, they stated, "The entire election management authority responsible for the poor election administration cannot be exempt from accountability," emphasizing, "The National Election Commission and administrative authorities lost the public’s trust even before the main voting due to their poor and sloppy election management, severely damaging the government's credibility."

They also added, "We hope the government will, even now, thoroughly analyze the exact circumstances and causes of this incident where the manual was not properly implemented on site and ballots were handled arbitrarily, accurately inform the public, and promptly rectify the problem."

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