![Former Prime Minister Lee Nak-yon [Newsis]](https://wimg.heraldcorp.com/news/cms/2026/06/12/news-p.v1.20260612.1f7419edd5204f9ba38f9da3cb209e74_P1.png)
Former Prime Minister Lee Nak-yon said the ballot shortage during the June 3 local elections amounted to "a blunder more fatal than fraud," while expressing doubt that a by-election would be held.
In a video titled "What the Jamsil youth are saying," posted Thursday on his YouTube channel "Lee Nak-yon's Thoughts," Lee said the debate over whether the June 3 election was "rigged or just botched" was "not a particularly meaningful argument." He added, however, that "by common sense, if there was intent, it was election fraud; if there was no intent, it was a flawed election."
Lee said there was still something worth examining. "Seoul is where the most razor-thin races play out, and the outcome there carries the greatest significance," he said. "Songpa-gu is a place where a particular party — now the opposition — commands overwhelming support."
"The fact that ballots ran short at 20 polling stations in Songpa, where the opposition candidate enjoys overwhelming support and where the closest, most consequential contest in Seoul was taking place — that is precisely what made the problem so much more serious," he said. "Even if the ballot shortage stemmed from negligence rather than deliberate intent by the National Election Commission, it becomes a blunder more fatal than fraud."
"That is exactly why I said it is not particularly meaningful to argue over whether it was fraud or just a flawed election," he added.
![[Newsis]](https://wimg.heraldcorp.com/news/cms/2026/06/12/news-p.v1.20260612.4f91a43001224e5c9d02cb0f883e6c53_P1.jpg)
On calls for a by-election, Lee said the prospect was slim, as the number of affected votes was unlikely to have swung any race.
Lee noted that "young people in Jamsil are calling for a by-election," and that "citizens at rallies, as sovereign members of the public, have every right to demand one." He also noted that People Power Party leader Jang Dong-hyeok had called for a nationwide by-election.
"For Jang Dong-hyeok to demand a nationwide by-election is either to not know election law or to know it and ignore it," Lee said. He explained that under Article 224 of the Public Official Election Act, a by-election can only be ordered if the ballot shortage is found to have affected the outcome of a race.
He also said a by-election becomes possible only when the combined total of voters who cast ballots after 6 p.m. on June 3 and those who gave up voting due to the ballot shortage exceeds the margin of victory in a given race.
Lee went on to say that each electoral district is a separate zone — as is the case in all elections other than the presidential race, which covers the entire country. "A problem in one electoral district cannot affect whether a by-election is held in another," he said.
He was equally pessimistic about the prospect of a by-election for the Seoul mayoral race.
"The electoral district for the Songpa-gu district chief is Songpa-gu, while the electoral district for the Seoul mayor is all of Seoul," Lee said. To hold a new Seoul mayoral election, he argued, the combined number of people across all of Seoul who voted after 6 p.m. and those who abandoned their vote due to the ballot shortage would need to exceed the margin between the first- and second-place finishers.
"The gap between first and second place in the Seoul mayoral race exceeded 60,000 votes, yet the total ballot shortage nationwide was reportedly 7,200," he said, suggesting the missing ballots were unlikely to have had a decisive impact on the election.
ygmoon@heraldcorp.com
