The Election Commission to Strengthen On-site and Internal Audits to Prevent Poor Management of Early Voting

Election Commission Chairman Reviews 'Full-time Position' as Long-term Task

[Asia Economy Reporter Naju-seok] The National Election Commission concluded that there were "comprehensive mistakes in prediction, preparation, and response" regarding the poor management of early voting in this year's presidential election. The commission has prepared reform measures, including considering making the Chairman of the National Election Commission a full-time position and strengthening coordination between the central and local election commissions as well as internal audits.

According to the commission on the 18th, the Election Management Innovation Committee (hereinafter referred to as the Innovation Committee) will report the reform plan to a closed meeting of the election commissioners at 4 p.m.

[Image source=Yonhap News]

The Innovation Committee identified the cause of the early voting mismanagement incident, known as the so-called ‘Sokuri Voting’ controversy, as the wrong judgments and policy decisions by the Secretariat of the central election commission, which was disconnected from the field, and insufficient management by the election commissioners. Accordingly, they proposed sending 10% of the approximately 500 central election commission staff to regional election commissions, and drafting 20% two months before important elections. This is a measure to resolve the problem that concerns about managing votes of COVID-19 confirmed patients raised by regional election commissions were not properly reflected by the Secretariat. Therefore, up to 30% of the central election commission staff will be sent to the field.

The issue of the position of Chairman No Jeong-hee, who was involved in the responsibility controversy, was not addressed, but there was a consensus that, in the long term, it is necessary to make the chairman, who is currently a non-standing commissioner appointed as a sitting Supreme Court justice, a full-time position. Currently, the Supreme Court justice concurrently serves as the Chairman of the National Election Commission.

In addition, the Innovation Committee decided to strengthen internal audit functions by making the audit organization independent and raising the rank of the auditor. The reform plan was discussed by seven members, including Chairman Jo Byeong-hyeon, and figures from the media and academia, to analyze the causes of this incident and prevention measures.

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