35 Election Petitions Filed; NEC Criticized for 'Bonus Parties' Despite Past Voting Controversies

[Anchor]

Ten days have passed since the local elections, but the fallout surrounding the process and results continues to simmer. Following the recent shortage of ballot papers, 35 "election petitions" challenging the results have been filed so far. Depending on the decisions made by the National Election Commission (NEC) regarding these petitions, a series of related lawsuits is expected to follow.

We begin today, June 13, with a report from Son Hyeong-an.

[Reporter]

In the wake of the ballot paper shortage, a total of 35 election petitions challenging the validity of the June 3 local elections have been filed to date.

Seven petitions, including two regarding the Seoul mayoral race and one regarding the Seoul superintendent of education race, were filed with the National Election Commission, while 28 others, including those for local government heads, were submitted to regional election commissions.

The deadline for filing election petitions is June 17, and the election commission that receives a petition must decide whether to invalidate the election within 60 days.

As the conservative opposition continues to argue that voters' rights were infringed upon and calls for re-elections, the number of election petitions is expected to rise further.

Meanwhile, it has been revealed that the National Election Commission continued to provide performance bonuses and awards to its staff even in 2022, when it faced severe criticism for the so-called "laundry basket voting" incident.

That year, the NEC spent all but 1,000 won of its 8.3 billion won (8,304,790,000 KRW) budget for performance-based bonuses and awarded commendations from the NEC Chairperson to 60 employees for their contributions to the presidential and local elections.

Even in April, two months before this year's June 3 local elections, a plan was established to select 110 "outstanding public officials for election contributions."

The NEC stated that the plan to select outstanding public officials was completely suspended following the ballot paper shortage incident.

It also explained that the 2022 performance bonuses were paid out within the allocated budget.

While the NEC claims these actions did not violate any regulations, it is difficult to avoid criticism that the commission, which has sparked controversies large and small during every election, has been more focused on securing rewards than on self-reflection.

(Video reporting: Lee Seung-hwan, Shin Dong-hwan | Video editing: Jeon Min-gyu | Graphics: Park Tae-young | Data provided by the office of Representative Park Jun-tae of the People Power Party)
※ Please note: This article was translated by AI and may contain errors.