"If I Were Oh Se-hoon, I Would Call for a By-Election"... Na Kyung-won Proposes Bills to Abolish the NEC and End Early Voting

[Financial News] Na Kyung-won of the People Power Party said that, in connection with the shortage of ballots in the June 3 local elections, "If I had been the elected Seoul Metropolitan City Mayor, I would have immediately declared a by-election." She also proposed a revision to the Public Official Election Act that would broaden the grounds for invalidating an election.
At a press conference at The National Assembly of the Republic of Korea on the 12th, Na said, "Irregularities and allegations of wrongdoing continue to emerge," adding, "The constituencies where problems occurred must hold a by-election."
Referring to the shortage of ballots at some polling stations in Songpa District, Seoul, she said, "If I were the elected Seoul Metropolitan City Mayor Oh Se-hoon, I think I would go straight to the vote-counting site at Olympic Park, Jamsil, and declare a by-election."
Na stressed, "The constitutional illegality of completely blocking citizens' voting rights does not disappear simply because the number of voters who could not cast ballots was not enough to change the outcome," and added, "The legitimacy of an election lies not in the result, but in the constitutional legitimacy of the process."
She also criticized the current Public Official Election Act, saying, "Even if a violation of election rules occurs, it recognizes an election as invalid only when it is deemed to have affected the result," and called it "an contradictory structure that shifts the burden of proof after the fact onto voters who were unable to vote because of the NEC's mistake."
Na said she had proposed a revision to the Public Official Election Act that would allow all or part of an election to be invalidated when voters' voting rights are infringed due to the fault of the NEC, regardless of whether the outcome was affected.
She also called for a sweeping overhaul of the election system as a whole.
Her specific proposals include extending the election objection period to within 30 days from the date the winner is determined, dismantling the NEC and building a new governance structure, delegating election operations such as voting and counting to other institutions, introducing same-day voting and on-site manual counting as the principle, and abolishing out-of-district early voting while allowing in-district early voting only for one day immediately before the main vote.

Na argued, "Citizens' voting rights must never be infringed for any reason," and added, "This incident should serve as an opportunity to fundamentally review the election management system."

y27k@fnnews.com Seo Yoon-kyung Reporter