Task Force Speeds Up Probe as Election Commission Official Is First Suspect Summoned in Alleged Vote Statistics Manipulation Case

[Financial News] The Joint Prosecutor-Police Investigation Task Force, led by Kim Tae-hoon, senior deputy chief prosecutor at the Seoul Central District Prosecutors' Office, is accelerating its probe into allegations of vote statistics manipulation by summoning an election commission official as a suspect for the first time.
According to the legal community on the 29th, the task force will question an official at the Gyeonggi NEC office, identified as A, on the morning of the same day on charges including obstruction of business. This is the first time an NEC official has been questioned as a suspect in connection with allegations of vote-rate manipulation.
A is accused of asking about how to respond to a misentry in the number of voters from a Gimpo NEC employee on June 3, during the local elections, then discussing correction methods and figures with an NEC official before passing them on.
The task force believes local NEC staff at the time arbitrarily altered statistics in the election management system to conceal the misentry in voter numbers, without going through formal reporting or approval procedures, and is continuing its investigation on that basis.
Since the 23rd, the task force has secured related materials by raiding the NEC headquarters in Gwacheon, Gyeonggi, as well as NEC offices in Songpa, Gangnam and Seocho districts. A task force official explained that "searches of servers take a considerable amount of time," adding that the raids resumed on the 27th.
The task force also plans to question one NEC official as a witness over allegations of false voter-number entries.
In connection with the shortage of ballot papers, suspect questioning of two Songpa District NEC officials will continue today, following questioning yesterday.
They are accused of dereliction of duty for failing to take proper action even though they were aware that a shortage of ballot papers could occur at a specific polling station during the local elections, and for not responding promptly to requests for additional ballot papers.
The task force also plans to question one NEC official as a witness regarding allegations of overseas trips taken by former NEC Chairperson Rho Tae-ak and others for non-official purposes.
Meanwhile, the task force is also reviewing materials on 72 correction reports for voter numbers that the NEC received on election day. However, a task force official said that "it is necessary to further verify whether the entries were normal corrections of simple input errors or whether they constitute false entries."
 
[email protected] Choi Eun-sol Reporter