South Korea Local Elections: Ballot Shortage Sparks Protests, 10,000 Demand Re-vote

(Central News Agency, Seoul, 6th – Combined Foreign Reports) Protests demanding a re-run of the local elections held earlier this week continued for a second day outside the counting site. Police estimated that approximately 10,000 citizens gathered to protest today.

According to Yonhap News Agency, citing unofficial police estimates, about 10,000 citizens had gathered outside the SK Olympic Handball Stadium in Seoul as of 5:30 p.m. local time. The counting of votes for the local government heads and council members elections held on the 3rd was underway at the venue.

Reuters could not independently verify the estimated number.

Voting for South Korea's 9th local elections and by-elections for National Assembly seats was held nationwide on the 3rd. According to the National Election Commission (NEC), a total of 67 polling stations nationwide received additional ballot papers on the day, and voting was temporarily suspended at 22 stations due to ballot shortages.

Yonhap reported that on election day, some polling stations in Seoul ran out of ballots, affecting normal voting in 12 stations in Songpa-gu's Jamsil-dong, one in Gangnam-gu, and one in Gwangjin-gu.

Among them, voting at the 2nd polling station in Jamsil 7-dong was suspended. Around 10 p.m. that evening, citizens, including conservative influencers, blocked the polling station to protest the removal of ballot boxes. Demonstrators argued that for the sake of fairness, ballots from that station should not be counted given the suspension caused by the shortage.

The presidential office, Cheong Wa Dae, stated on the 4th that the NEC should take responsibility for the ballot shortage. NEC Chairman Noh Tae-ak apologized and resigned on the 5th.

South Korea's JoongAng Ilbo, citing the NEC, reported that in Seoul's Songpa-gu, Gwangjin-gu, and Gangnam-gu, official ballots were printed at rates of approximately 50%, 50%, and 55% of the total registered voters in their respective districts.

This stemmed from a guideline issued by the central NEC to lower-level city and provincial election commissions, mandating that official ballots must be printed for at least 50% of the total electorate. Printed ballots were distributed to polling stations, with the remainder kept as reserve stock by city, county, and district commissions for allocation to stations facing shortages.

An NEC official defended the situation, stating, "While we predicted the combined early voting and election day turnout would exceed 70%, an excessive concentration of voters at certain polling stations led to the confusion."

However, investigations revealed that the NEC had secured budgets from local governments citing the need to print 1.1 times the total number of voters, but the actual print run was only half of that commitment.

Reuters reported that Seoul Mayor Oh Se-hoon said in a televised address that the ballot shortage was intolerable and had infringed upon citizens' right to vote. He demanded the dissolution of the NEC and called for an investigation by a special prosecution team.

According to live footage from YTN Television and Yonhap, most protesters, including conservative YouTubers, chanted slogans like "Re-run the election" outside the SK Olympic Handball Stadium, sang the national anthem, and waved national flags.

Some protesters sat in front of the stadium gates, attempting to prevent NEC officials from leaving the scene. (Translated by He Hongru) 1150606