[Anchor]

The National Assembly's special committee for the parliamentary investigation has entered the vote counting center at Olympic Park in Songpa-gu, Seoul, to publicly inspect the storage status of ballot boxes for the first time. Arguments have clashed between those claiming the ballots should not be left in a place without CCTV surveillance and those arguing that moving them before an investigation, even for security reasons, could raise further suspicions.

Our first report today, July 3, comes from reporter Kim Kwan-jin.

[Reporter]

Lawmakers from the National Assembly's special investigation committee gathered in front of the handball stadium at Olympic Park in Jamsil, Seoul, which served as the Songpa-gu vote counting center during the June 3 local elections.

At 1:11 p.m. yesterday, they began their entry into the counting center.

Police secured an entry point that was relatively less crowded, rather than the two main entrances that had been blocked by citizens.

Once the lawmakers entered the facility and moved to the basement where the ballots were stored, boxes labeled "Ballots" were revealed.

[Yoon Kun-young / Democratic Party of Korea]: "Can you prove that the situation of these ballots has not changed since they were first placed here?"

[Jo Si-hoon / Former Secretary-General of the Songpa-gu Election Commission]: "They are sealed. They are all sealed with the chairman's stamp."

There are a total of 420 boxes in storage.

They contain the cast ballots.

[Yoon Sang-hyun / Chairman of the Special Investigation Committee (People Power Party)]: "How many ballots do you estimate are here?"

[Jo Si-hoon / Former Secretary-General of the Songpa-gu Election Commission]: "About 2.47 million."

[Kim Young-bae / Democratic Party of Korea]: "So the ballots from Jamsil 7-dong Polling Station No. 2 are also here, right?"

[Jo Si-hoon / Former Secretary-General of the Songpa-gu Election Commission]: "Yes, that is correct."

The lawmakers pointed out that CCTV cameras were not properly installed in the ballot storage area.

[Jo Si-hoon / Former Secretary-General of the Songpa-gu Election Commission]: "We didn't have the time to install separate CCTV cameras..."

[Choi Bo-yoon / People Power Party]: "Shouldn't you have chosen a location where CCTV was already installed from the beginning?"

[Kim Yong-man / Democratic Party of Korea]: "This was originally the stadium's shower room. That is why there is no CCTV inside. It is a situation where we cannot say it is being managed securely."

Yoon Sang-hyun, Chairman of the Special Investigation Committee, emphasized the necessity of a public verification process to the National Election Commission.

[Yoon Sang-hyun / Chairman of the Special Investigation Committee (People Power Party)]: "To prove that the ballot boxes have been preserved as they were and that the counting process was conducted without any issues or errors."

The special committee personally verified the storage status of the 2.47 million ballots during their 40-minute on-site inspection. However, they did not open or remove any ballot boxes and have demanded that the Election Commission submit CCTV footage from the counting center.

Reported by Kim Kwan-jin | Video by Shin Dong-hwan and Yang Ji-hoon | Video Editing by Jang Hyun-ki