"The Final Turnout Is All That Matters," Says Election Official; Signs of Manipulation Also Found in Chungcheong

[Anchor]

Regarding allegations that Election Commission officials manipulated voter turnout during the June 3 local elections, suspicious circumstances have been detected in two other regions in addition to Gyeonggi Province. An official under investigation reportedly claimed, "Isn't it fine as long as the final voter turnout is correct?"

Here is a report by Jeon Yeonnam.

[Reporter]

The joint investigation headquarters of prosecutors and police has additionally detected circumstances where voter turnout was falsely entered at two polling stations—one in Gyeonggi Province and another in the Chungcheong region—on the day of the June 3 local elections.

The findings were uncovered while analyzing seized messenger logs between employees, and these locations are separate from the Gyeonggi Province polling station subject to yesterday's (July 23) search and seizure.

Previously, the joint headquarters found that during the hourly turnout tallying process, an official at a Gyeonggi Province polling station wrongly entered the number of voters by units of hundreds to thousands, and that two officials—one from the National Election Commission and another from the Gyeonggi Election Commission—distributed figures exceeding the actual number of voters to other polling stations to cover it up.

In this process, voting status was manipulated for about four hours, and at another polling station where the voter count was inflated, tallies were recorded in a way that the number of voters increased by just one person per hour.

Having captured these circumstances, the joint headquarters is conducting a search and seizure on the National Election Commission for the second consecutive day following yesterday.

During yesterday's search and seizure, a related Election Commission official reportedly admitted to the false entries while making the absurd claim, "Isn't it fine as long as the final voter turnout is correct?"

As the possibility is raised that manipulating turnout statistics within the Election Commission was treated lightly and practiced as a custom, the likelihood of expanding the investigation to polling stations nationwide is growing.

Meanwhile, regarding the ballot paper shortage, the joint headquarters questioned the secretary-general of the Dongjak District Election Commission as a suspect, and summoned three officials from the National Election Commission as reference witnesses over suspicions surrounding the overseas trip of former Election Commission Chairperson Noh Tae-ak.

(Video Editing: Won Hyung-hee)

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