▲ The National Election Commission in Gwacheon
The special counsel team led by Lee Tae-han, which is investigating the ballot shortage incident during the June 3 local elections, has launched raids on the offices of the National Election Commission (NEC) chairman and secretary-general over allegations of the wrongful payment of allowances.
The special counsel team announced that starting at 9:00 a.m. today (Nov. 2), a total of 65 personnel—including 4 dispatched prosecutors and 25 forensic investigators—are conducting raids on 18 departments, including the NEC chairman's office and secretary-general's office, on charges of causing losses to state funds under the Act on the Aggravated Punishment, etc. of Specific Crimes, abuse of authority, and preparation of false official documents.
The residence of a former secretary-general who served as the top official of the NEC secretariat is also being searched.
The special counsel team has uncovered circumstances indicating that the NEC unlawfully paid a monthly flat-rate "Fair Election Promotion Activity Allowance" (hereinafter referred to as the fair election activity fund) to the chairman and non-standing commissioners.
According to the special counsel team, despite being pointed out by the Board of Audit and Inspection and the National Assembly that there was no legal basis for the payments, the NEC submitted budget data for 2019–2022 by marking "Not Applicable" in the "External Institution Audit Findings" column and received budgets to pay the activity funds.
In particular, circumstances emerged showing that even though no budget was allocated in 2024 and the budget was completely cut in 2025, allowances were paid using funds allocated for other purposes.
The amounts paid were approximately 171.5 million won in 2020, 210.92 million won in 2021, 200.28 million won in 2022, 115.4 million won in 2024, and 107.7 million won for the third and fourth quarters of 2025. Each of these exceeds the annual threshold of 100 million won for the crime of causing losses to state funds under the Act on the Aggravated Punishment, etc. of Specific Crimes, bringing the total sum to 905.8 million won.
The special counsel team explained, "Based on the analysis of the seized items, we plan to verify the background of the budget allocation and execution for the fair election activity funds, as well as the reporting and instruction relationships during the process."
They added, "In particular, working-level staff members of the NEC secretariat were not even the beneficiaries of the activity funds, and they had long recognized the problems after being pointed out by the Board of Audit and Inspection and the National Assembly regarding the illegality of paying the funds. We will do our utmost to uncover why the illegal acts continued for years, stopped, and then resumed, and to clarify the collusion and degree of responsibility of the high-ranking officials involved."
(Photo: Yonhap News)
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