Gyeonggi Superintendent of Education Lim Tae-hee Calls for Inclusion of Election Results Error in Parliamentary Investigation

Gyeonggi Superintendent of Education Lim Tae-hee announced on June 22 that he has requested the National Assembly to include the superintendent of education election in its parliamentary investigation into the National Election Commission (NEC) and other relevant bodies.

Meeting with reporters at the Northern Office of the Gyeonggi Provincial Office of Education earlier today, Superintendent Lim explained the background of his request, stating, "The superintendent of education election is excluded from the scope of the parliamentary investigation because it is not a race involving political parties." He added, "Recording the vote counting results incorrectly is a more serious issue than a shortage of ballots."

It was belatedly confirmed that in the Gyeonggi Superintendent of Education election held on June 3, the vote counts for candidates were swapped or results from different polling stations were incorrectly entered at two locations: the No. 3 polling station in Geumgwang 2-dong, Jungwon-gu, Seongnam, and the No. 2 polling station in Chowol-eup, Gwangju.

Superintendent Lim has filed an election petition with the NEC and requested the disclosure of information regarding the incident.

Candidates who have objections regarding the validity of an election may file a petition with the NEC within 14 days of the election date.

The NEC must decide whether to accept the petition within 60 days.

If the petition is accepted, the election is declared null and void.

If the petition is dismissed, the applicant may file an objection with the Supreme Court.

Superintendent Lim emphasized, "Only after reports emerged that the vote counting results at two polling stations had been swapped did the NEC conduct a full investigation and claim that only those two locations were affected. How can we trust such an announcement?" He added, "That is why it must be addressed in the parliamentary investigation."

He continued, "If something like this had happened during the College Scholastic Ability Test (CSAT), a re-examination would have been mandatory," and warned, "If this issue is not addressed in the parliamentary investigation, I will file a complaint against the NEC officials with investigative authorities."

(Photo: Yonhap News)
※ Please note: This article was translated by AI and may contain errors.