[Anchor]

We will now discuss this in more detail with Ha Jeong-yeon from the political desk, who covered this story.

Q. How was the CCTV footage from the polling station obtained?

[Reporter Ha Jeong-yeon: This CCTV footage was secured after Kim Jeong-cheol, a Supreme Council member of the Reform Party who was a Seoul mayoral candidate in the June 3 local elections, filed a request for evidence preservation with the court, which was subsequently granted. The CCTV cameras were not installed by the National Election Commission (NEC) but were already present in the polling station building. According to current regulations, even if CCTV cameras are already installed in areas that capture voting booths, they must be covered on election day to ensure the secrecy of the ballot. Therefore, the released CCTV footage only captured the waiting area, not the inside of the voting booths. In addition to the footage from the Jamsil 4-dong No. 7 polling station, where voting was suspended three times, the court has ordered the preservation of CCTV footage from 10 polling stations in Songpa-gu, Seoul, including the Jamsil 7-dong No. 2 polling station, where voting hours were extended until 10:00 PM.]

Q. Are there more voters who gave up on voting than previously confirmed?

[Reporter Ha Jeong-yeon: Yes, that is correct. It has been confirmed that there were more people who left without voting than the 39 officially counted. The NEC also used the term "at least 39" because they took into account the possibility that the number could be higher. In fact, the figure of 39 was compiled by the NEC through voting records. Looking at the records from the 26 polling stations where voting was suspended, there are instances where the number or names of voters who waited for ballots to arrive and then left were recorded. That is how the number 39 was reached. However, when we checked the voting record for the Jamsil 4-dong No. 7 polling station, which we saw earlier, there was no record at all in the "special remarks" section regarding how many people waited and then left, despite voting being suspended three times. Yet, as seen in the CCTV footage, it is clear that people like the mother with the stroller came to vote and then left. This is evidence that the number of people who left without voting is likely higher than the 39 counted in the official records. Cho Hyun-wook, head of the NEC's fact-finding committee, also acknowledged in a phone call with SBS today (June 23) that there could be more voters who left without casting a ballot, even if they were not recorded in the voting logs. This is a significant point, as these are cases where the right to vote was directly infringed. There is one more point to address. Article 151 of the Public Official Election Act stipulates that representatives recommended by political parties must participate in the process of delivering and handing over ballots. However, the CCTV footage confirms that this procedure was not followed at all during this process.]