[Anchor]
Circumstances indicating that the National Election Commission (NEC) falsely entered voter turnout figures have been uncovered from the 21st presidential election as well. At some polling stations, the number of hourly voters was entered as increasing by exactly 100 each time. The National Election Commission offered the absurd explanation that there is no problem with the final turnout, so it was not fabrication.
Reporter Bae Junu has the story.
[Reporter]
These are the hourly voter numbers on the day of the 21st presidential election held in June of last year, which the National Election Commission submitted to the office of People Power Party lawmaker Joo Jin-woo.
In the case of Polling Station No. 6 in Hongeun 2-dong, Seoul, the number of voters started at 100 at 7:00 a.m., followed by 200 at 8:00 a.m., 300 at 9:00 a.m., and 500 at 10:00 a.m. In the afternoon as well, the numbers increased only in hundreds, such as 1,300 at 2:00 p.m. and 1,400 at 3:00 p.m., with only the final count at 8:00 p.m. recorded as 2,099.
Similarly, at five other locations from Polling Station No. 1 to No. 5 in Hongeun 2-dong, hourly voter numbers were continuously entered in units of 100 until 7:00 p.m., while only the voter numbers at 8:00 p.m. were entered as 1,338 and 1,738.
Such cases of entering figures in units of hundreds were also found at Polling Station No. 2 and No. 3 in Namgajwa 1-dong, Seoul, and Polling Station No. 9 in Uichang-dong, Changwon, South Gyeongsang Province.
Meanwhile, at Polling Station No. 1 in Namchon-dong, Osan, Gyeonggi Province, the hourly voter count was entered identically as 1,100 all four times from 3:00 p.m. to 6:00 p.m.
[Joo Jin-woo / Lawmaker, People Power Party: Given the trend of voter turnout, voting cannot suddenly stop like this. It is clear that the number of voters was falsely fabricated.]
Lawmaker Joo pointed out that cases such as entering figures in units of hundreds and the failure of voter numbers to increase for certain periods of time appeared at a total of 109 polling stations.
In response, the National Election Commission explained that local election management officials at the eup, myeon, and dong levels may have reported figures in units of hundreds during the initial tallying and reporting process. However, they argued that since there are no problems with the final voter turnout, it was not fabrication.
Yet, criticism has been raised that such an attitude is complacent, given that real-time voter turnout itself can be vital information.
[Han Sang-hee / Professor, Konkuk University Law School: Real-time voter turnout is crucial data that helps voters decide whether or not to cast their ballots. I believe the system itself is flawed.]
Lawmaker Joo stated that an analysis of hourly voter data from the local elections in June of last year also revealed 34 polling stations where the number of voters showed no change for over three hours.
(Video reporting: Shin Dong-hwan, Park Hyun-chul | Video editing: Lee So-young | Design: Im Chan-hyuk)
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