Four Municipalities Recommend Dismissal: Controversy Over Opinions Resembling Central Election Commission Guidelines

[Anchor]

Election commissions in four municipalities, including Gyeonggi Province, have all recommended the dismissal of election petitions filed following the ballot paper shortage incident. However, an SBS investigation has revealed that not only are these opinion documents similar to one another, but they also overlap significantly with reference materials provided by the National Election Commission (NEC).

Reporter Kim Kwan-jin has the story.

[Reporter]

The election commissions of Gyeonggi, Incheon, Busan, and Daegu have submitted opinion documents to the NEC requesting the dismissal of election petitions regarding gubernatorial and proportional representation metropolitan council elections.

In these documents, they conveyed to the NEC that the various issues surrounding the ballot paper shortage were unavoidable measures and did not constitute violations of laws or regulations.

However, despite being from different regions, the content of these opinion documents is remarkably similar. Furthermore, they share significant portions of their content with the so-called reference materials that the NEC emailed to each regional election commission on June 30, which has sparked controversy over whether the NEC issued a directive to dismiss the petitions.

Critics argue that the NEC has exerted influence over regional election commissions, which are supposed to make independent judgments.

[Cheon Ha-ram / Reform Party Lawmaker: It is as if a judge is colluding with the defendant. The National Election Commission has already caused public outrage with the ballot paper shortage, and it continues to undermine the fairness of election administration.]

On the other hand, the Seoul Metropolitan Election Commission, where three members resigned in protest against the NEC's reference materials—calling them, in effect, dismissal guidelines—did not submit an opinion for either dismissal or acceptance.

They reasoned that if they were to pre-determine their stance, it could lead to disputes over independence and fairness, especially since the Seoul Metropolitan Election Commission must also judge district head elections in Seoul that share the same or similar facts and issues as the Seoul mayoral election petition currently being reviewed by the NEC.

(Video reporting: Kim Nam-seong | Video editing: Lee Sang-min | Design: Park Tae-yeon, Han Song-yeon | Data provided by: Office of Lawmaker Cheon Ha-ram)
※ Please note: This article was translated by AI and may contain errors.