The People Power Party on Friday intensified its offensive over electoral fraud allegations, calling for the dissolution of the National Election Commission, an extension of the ongoing parliamentary investigation and the swift launch of a special prosecutor. The push came after a joint police-prosecution task force reportedly detected signs of statistical manipulation by NEC staff and moved to conduct a forced investigation.
PPP Secretary-General Jeong Hee-yong said at a floor strategy meeting Friday that "what is even more serious is the allegation that the manipulation was organized," adding that the parliamentary investigation "should not be rushed to a close but extended and run in parallel with the special prosecutor."
The parliamentary investigation had in effect concluded after a second hearing on the NEC and related bodies on Wednesday. A string of additional allegations involving the NEC has since emerged, however, prompting calls within the PPP to extend the probe's mandate.
Party leader Jang Dong-hyeok said Thursday that "even if it requires extending the parliamentary investigation period, all problems that surfaced in the June 3 local elections must be brought to light." On the special prosecutor — set to be launched by agreement between the ruling and opposition parties — Jang said "there must be no restrictions on the scope of the investigation," pressing for the NEC's central server to be included as a mandatory target "in order to investigate other allegations, including the possibility of digital manipulation of votes."
Some within the party went further, calling outright for the NEC's dissolution. Chief Spokesperson Park Sung-hoon said in a statement Friday that the NEC "had repeatedly pledged to the public that digital manipulation was impossible, but this incident has exposed to the world that such manipulation is in fact possible," adding that the commission "has completely lost the public's trust and no longer has any reason to exist." Park said further reform measures were no longer sufficient. "Dissolution-level reform is not the answer — dissolution itself is," he said.
A public demonstration calling for the NEC's dissolution was also held Thursday. Led by PPP lawmaker Choi Su-jin, the event took place in front of the main National Assembly building, where Cho Seung-hwan, head of a civic group called "Barefoot Man," stood on a block of ice to demand the commission be disbanded. Party leader Jang and other members of the PPP leadership also attended.
The PPP also unveiled a separate reform proposal through its internal special committee on NEC reform. A draft the committee prepared Tuesday included measures to abolish the early voting system, establish an independent inspection body for the NEC, codify whistleblower protections for NEC insiders in law, and reorganize the commission's standing commissioner structure to strengthen substantive oversight.
Park Dae-chul, the committee's chairman, said members had reached a consensus that "a comprehensive overhaul of the NEC's organizational structure and its voting and counting systems would require amendments to at least eight laws," and pledged to "gather broad input from PPP lawmakers, experts and the public to produce reform measures the people can support."
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