Noh Tae-ak: "I Feel Responsible as Chairperson for Ballot Shortage Incident"

Former National Election Commission (NEC) Chairperson Noh Tae-ak said today (June 23) regarding the ballot shortage incident during the June 3 local elections, "As chairperson, I feel a deep sense of responsibility for the commission's failure to oversee the process thoroughly."

Noh made the remarks while attending a plenary session of the National Assembly's "Special Committee on the Investigation of the June 3 Local Election Ballot Shortage" in response to a related question from Democratic Party of Korea lawmaker Kim Nam-hee.

He also acknowledged that the NEC had processed a change to its comprehensive management guidelines—which lowered the minimum number of printed ballots for the main voting day from 60% to 50% of the number of eligible voters—through the sole approval of the Secretary-General ahead of the local elections, stating, "I am aware that is the case."

Regarding reports that he had not been briefed on the guideline change in advance, he explained that while he "thinks a brief report might have been made," he has no recollection of receiving such a report.

Former Secretary-General Heo Cheol-hoon also attended the meeting today and said, "I deeply apologize for the significant inconvenience and confusion caused to the public due to this ballot shortage incident."

Explaining the background behind the change in guidelines, he stated, "We collected opinions from staff at district, city, and county election commissions, as voting and ballot counting are conducted by those local committees, in addition to the results of a study by the Korea Institute of Public Administration."

In response to criticism that the NEC was slow to respond to the ballot shortage, he said, "I believe that if the Seoul Metropolitan Election Commission had reported it to the central office promptly, we could have taken initial and effective measures." He added, "It is very regrettable that the election situation room could not respond properly because the report was not made to the central office in a timely manner."

(Photo: Yonhap News)
※ Please note: This article was translated by AI and may contain errors.