Parliamentary Probe Team Enters Jamsil Counting Center After 27 Days, Verifies 2.47 Million Ballots

[Anchor]

The National Assembly's special committee investigating the shortage of ballot papers has entered the vote-counting center at Olympic Park in Seoul, which had been blocked by protests, to inspect the storage conditions of the ballot boxes for the first time. The interior was opened to the committee 27 days after access was blocked by protests on June 5.

Reporter Kim Kwan-jin reports.

[Reporter]

Lawmakers from the National Assembly's special investigation committee gathered in front of the handball stadium at Olympic Park in Jamsil, Seoul, which served as the Songpa-gu vote-counting center during the June 3 local elections.

At 1:11 p.m. yesterday (July 2), they began their entry into the counting center.

Police secured an entry point that was relatively less crowded, rather than the two main entrances that had been blocked by citizens.

Once inside, the lawmakers moved to the underground storage area where boxes labeled "Ballots" were revealed.

[Yoon Kun-young / Democratic Party of Korea lawmaker: Can you prove that the situation of these ballots has not changed since they were first placed here?]

[Jo Si-hoon / Former Secretary-General of the Songpa-gu Election Commission: They are sealed. They are all sealed with the chairman's official stamp.]

There are a total of 420 boxes in storage, containing the marked ballots.

[Yoon Sang-hyun / Chairman of the Special Investigation Committee (People Power Party): How many ballots do you estimate there are?]

[Jo Si-hoon / Former Secretary-General of the Songpa-gu Election Commission: About 2.47 million.]

[Kim Young-bae / Democratic Party of Korea lawmaker: So, the ballots from the Jamsil 7-dong 2nd polling station are also here, right?]

[Jo Si-hoon / Former Secretary-General of the Songpa-gu Election Commission: Yes, that is correct.]

The lawmakers pointed out that CCTV cameras were not properly installed in the ballot storage area.

[Jo Si-hoon / Former Secretary-General of the Songpa-gu Election Commission: We did not have the time to install separate CCTV cameras...]

[Choi Bo-yoon / People Power Party lawmaker: Shouldn't you have chosen a location that already had CCTV cameras installed from the beginning?]

[Kim Yong-man / Democratic Party of Korea lawmaker: This was originally the shower room of the stadium. That is why there is no CCTV inside. It is a situation where we cannot say it is being managed securely.]

Yoon Sang-hyun, chairman of the special committee, emphasized to the National Election Commission the need for public verification.

[Yoon Sang-hyun / Chairman of the Special Investigation Committee (People Power Party): To prove that the ballot boxes have been preserved as they were, and that the counting process was conducted without any issues or errors.]

The special committee conducted an on-site inspection for 40 minutes to verify the storage status of the 2.47 million ballots. They did not open or remove the ballot boxes and have requested that the National Election Commission submit the CCTV footage from the counting center.

(Reported by Shin Dong-hwan and Yang Ji-hoon | Video by Jang Hyun-ki)
※ Please note: This article was translated by AI and may contain errors.