Rival Parties Agree to August 18 Re-count for Olympic Park Ballots, National Election Commission Special Counsel Bill Passes

[Anchor]

The ruling and opposition parties have tentatively agreed to re-count 2.47 million ballots stored at the Olympic Park stadium in Seoul on the 18th of next month. The "National Election Commission Special Counsel Bill" has also passed the National Assembly through a bipartisan agreement.

Reporter Go Jeong-hyeon has the details.

[Reporter]

The National Assembly approved a bipartisan motion yesterday (the 30th) to extend the activities of the Special Committee on Fact-Finding into the Ballot Shortage Incident by an additional 30 days.

The special committee, extended through the end of next month, plans to hold its third hearing on the 10th of next month, followed by a re-count on the 18th of the 2.47 million ballots from Songpa-gu, Seoul, currently stored at the Handball Gymnasium in Seoul Olympic Park.

However, the schedule for the re-count is currently a tentative agreement only between the floor leaderships of the rival parties and remains subject to change.

[Yoon Gun-young / Democratic Party of Korea lawmaker: Since we extended the special parliamentary investigation committee for a month for the re-count, I believe the re-count must proceed within August regardless...]

[Joo Jin-woo / People Power Party lawmaker: It might be a different story if it doesn't interfere at all with the special counsel investigation or its schedule, but if it conflicts or if we pin down the timing like that...]

The special counsel bill regarding the ballot shortage incident also passed the National Assembly by agreement between the rival parties.

A public recommendation committee, formed with an equal number of members recommended by the ruling and opposition parties, will receive three special counsel candidates each from the Korean Bar Association and the Korean Law Professors Association, and then recommend two of them to the President.

The special counsel team, comprising around 165 members and operating for a maximum of 170 days, will investigate 12 allegations, including not only the ballot shortage incident but also overseas junket trips by current and former National Election Commission commissioners and employees, preferential promotions for their children, manipulation of election statistics, and poor operation of the election management system.

(Video by Oh Young-chun and Lee Seung-hwan | Video Editing by Oh Young-taek | Graphics by Han Heung-soo and Lee Jun-ho)
※ Please note: This article was translated by AI and may contain errors.