Allegations of concealment and forgery of vote-count records; Public Official Election Act violations suspected

Lee Tae-han, special prosecutor for the National Election Commission investigation, waits upon arriving at the handball arena at Seoul Olympic Park on Oct. 28 for a public verification of ballots from the June 3 local elections. [Yonhap]
Lee Tae-han, special prosecutor for the National Election Commission investigation, waits upon arriving at the handball arena at Seoul Olympic Park on Oct. 28 for a public verification of ballots from the June 3 local elections. [Yonhap]

The special prosecutor investigating alleged misconduct by the National Election Commission — including a ballot shortage that emerged during the June 3 local elections — has launched a forced investigation into the Gyeonggi Province NEC and related offices on suspicion of concealing and forging vote-count records.

The special prosecutor's team said Tuesday it had dispatched 11 investigators — one prosecutor, eight investigators and two forensic specialists — to execute search and seizure warrants at the Gyeonggi Province NEC and the Gwangju City NEC in Gyeonggi Province on charges including violations of the Public Official Election Act. The team said it plans to analyze the seized materials to determine whether there was organized involvement in the concealment and forgery of the vote-count records.

The probe stems from an incident in which vote tallies from some polling stations were found to have been incorrectly entered during the counting of ballots for the Gyeonggi Province superintendent of education race in the ninth nationwide simultaneous local elections, held in June. The Gyeonggi Province NEC issued a public apology that same month, acknowledging that data-entry errors had occurred in Seongnam's Jungwon-gu and in Gwangju City, and said it had corrected the vote-count and election records after verifying the facts.

The special prosecutor's team said it had been examining the incorrect vote-entry incident at the Gwangju City NEC related to the Gyeonggi education superintendent race when it found indications that a Gwangju City NEC employee had concealed and forged vote-count records, causing the recorded results to differ from the actual outcome, and that the Gwangju City NEC had subsequently intervened to cover up the concealment and forgery.

"Crimes such as concealing and forging vote-count records are serious offenses that can shake the foundations of democracy and fundamentally undermine the fairness of the electoral system," a member of the special prosecutor's team said. "We intend to establish the full truth in order to determine the exact cause and prevent a recurrence."

When the Gyeonggi Province NEC corrected the results, it revised the total vote counts for the education superintendent race — adjusting candidate Im Tae-hee's tally from 3,178,132 to 3,178,364 votes, and candidate Ahn Min-seok's from 3,557,171 to 3,557,356 votes. Former Education Superintendent Im, who ran in the race, has pursued legal action including filing an evidence preservation request. Im said the Seongnam Branch of Suwon District Court ruled in August that CCTV footage be submitted.


bell@heraldcorp.com