Rep. Song Eon-seog analyzes data submitted by National Election Commission

'Those responsible must be held accountable'

Vote counting begins at a Seogwipo city election commission counting center set up at the multipurpose gymnasium of the Gongcheonpo Field Training Center in Namwon-eup, Seogwipo, Jeju, on June 3. [Yonhap]
Vote counting begins at a Seogwipo city election commission counting center set up at the multipurpose gymnasium of the Gongcheonpo Field Training Center in Namwon-eup, Seogwipo, Jeju, on June 3. [Yonhap]

The National Election Commission allocated ballot printing budgets for the June 3 National Assembly by-elections without basing the figures on actual voter rolls, it has emerged.

According to budget documents the NEC submitted to People Power Party lawmaker Song Eon-seog of Gimcheon, North Gyeongsang Province, the commission distributed 5 million won ($3,290) each to all 17 metropolitan and provincial election commissions — a blanket total of 85 million won — before the districts holding by-elections had even been determined. The allocation was made without reference to the actual number of eligible voters in any given constituency.

The NEC told Song that, citing delays in emergency reserve fund disbursements, it had not tracked ballot printing costs as a separate budget line. Instead, those costs were folded into a broader 1.307 billion won operating budget redistributed to each regional commission.

That operating budget covered not only ballot printing but also the purchase of voting consumables, utility bills, rental fees and other election administration expenses.

Song said the arrangement meant that funds earmarked for ballot printing could in effect be drawn down whenever spending on other line items increased. He added that the NEC had been unable to provide a breakdown of how ballot printing budgets were allocated or spent in each by-election district — or even the actual number of ballots printed.

On the question of local election budgets, the NEC explained that national elections are funded through central government appropriations that the commission redistributes to regional bodies, whereas local elections are financed directly by local governments. That structure, it said, makes it difficult to obtain an immediate accounting of how ballot printing budgets were allocated and spent at the local level.

Song called the ballot shortage "a foreseeable man-made disaster born of the NEC's flawed policy decisions and systemic mismanagement." He said the full truth behind the incident — which disrupted citizens' right to vote — must be uncovered through a parliamentary investigation and a special prosecutor inquiry, and that those responsible must be held accountable.


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