South Korea Ballot Shortage Incident: Truth Commission to Objectively Investigate the Full Picture

(Central News Agency, reporter Yang Qifang, Seoul 10th special dispatch) The ballot shortage incident in South Korea's local elections continues to escalate. The Truth Investigation Committee established by the National Election Commission held its first meeting today. Chairman Jo Hyun-wook stated that the committee will objectively and accurately investigate the full picture of the incident and transparently disclose the results.

According to Yonhap News Agency, Chairman Jo Hyun-wook (phonetic) said at the National Election Commission, "The investigation committee, regardless of progressive or conservative factions, has gathered with the passion to uphold constitutional values from an objective and neutral standpoint to investigate this infringement of voting rights."

Jo emphasized that they will strictly hold relevant parties accountable and seek groundbreaking improvement plans, proposing and recommending reforms to the election management system to prevent the fairness and credibility of elections from being compromised again. "I hope the committee will not be interpreted from the perspective of political factional gains or losses. It will operate independently," he said.

Jo stated bluntly, "In a liberal democratic country, this unprecedented and absolutely unacceptable ballot shortage incident has occurred. This cannot be excused as an administrative error or evaluation failure. It is a serious constitutional order crisis that infringes on the people's right to vote." He pointed out that this incident also exposed the comprehensive failure of the entire election management system.

After the first meeting, which lasted about three hours, Jo said it was confirmed that the election commission did not have a relevant response manual in case of a ballot shortage. When necessary, they will request relevant officials to attend and submit more data. They will also request detailed information, including the reason for deciding to start counting votes before voting had ended, the identity of the decision-maker, and the minutes of the meeting where the decision to reduce the number of ballots printed was made.

The report indicates that the Truth Investigation Committee consists of six external members, including lawyer-turned-chairman Jo Hyun-wook, and will operate for 10 days until the 19th. (Editor: Zhang Zhixuan) 1150610