Exclusive: Ballot Shortage Chaos Unfolds, Yet First Emergency Meeting Held Only at Dawn the Next Day

[Anchor]

On the day of the June 3 local elections, when a ballot shortage crisis erupted in Songpa-gu, Seoul, what were the Seoul Metropolitan Election Commission members doing instead of addressing the situation? Our investigation has confirmed that they did not hold a single emergency meeting; instead, they proceeded with their scheduled field inspections of polling and counting stations. The Seoul election commissioners did not gather for their first meeting until 4:00 a.m. the following day.

Here is an exclusive report by Kim Kwan-jin.

[Reporter]

Of the eight members of the Seoul Metropolitan Election Commission, only five, including then-Chairman Oh Min-seok, were on duty on June 3, the day of the local elections.

What were they doing after 4:12 p.m., when voting was suspended for the first time for over 20 minutes at a polling station in Songpa-gu, Seoul, due to a shortage of ballots?

SBS investigation confirmed that three members, including former Chairman Oh Min-seok, were visiting a polling station in Sangdo 4-dong, Dongjak-gu, Seoul, from 3:00 p.m. to 4:30 p.m. to observe the voting process.

They were simply carrying out their pre-scheduled routine field inspections.

Despite the unprecedented crisis of "suspended voting," they continued with their schedule, visiting the SETEC exhibition center in Gangnam-gu, Seoul, from 9:00 p.m. to 10:30 p.m. to inspect the vote-counting station.

It has been confirmed that no plenary meeting was convened to receive reports on the ballot shortage or to decide on how long to extend voting hours.

The five Seoul election commissioners, including former Chairman Oh, did not gather to hold a meeting until 4:00 a.m. the next day.

This was a full 12 hours after the voting suspension crisis had begun in earnest, and even then, the meeting was reportedly held to discuss a statement to be distributed to the press.

So, who made the decision to extend the voting deadline at some polling stations, in some cases as late as 10:00 p.m. that night?

The Seoul Metropolitan Election Commission told SBS that "the committee decided to extend voting hours after discussions among working-level staff," adding that "the final decision-maker was then-Chairman Oh Min-seok."

However, they did not provide any records or documents to verify the exact approval process.

SBS attempted to contact former Chairman Oh Min-seok to ask about the response to the crisis, but he could not be reached.

Reported by Kim Kwan-jin | Video by Park Hyun-chul | Video Editing by Yoon Tae-ho
※ Please note: This article was translated by AI and may contain errors.