Special prosecutor probing the NEC to publicly verify ballots, dismisses claims of ‘direct reporting to the Blue House’

[Financial News] The special prosecutor’s team investigating the election commission (Special Prosecutor Lee Tae-han) will begin procedures to publicly display and verify ballots at the vote-counting station in Jamsil Olympic Park at the end of this month.
According to legal circles on the 11th, the special prosecutor’s team is coordinating schedules with relevant agencies, including the police and the election commission, to verify ballot evidence. Given the intense public scrutiny of the issue, the team is seeking to make the verification process transparent to the media and the general public.
The Olympic Park Handball Gymnasium in Songpa-gu, Seoul, the site of the verification, was used as a vote-counting station during the election. It was also where a standoff between protesters demonstrating over the ballot shortage and the police continued for an extended period. Taking public sentiment at the site into account, the special prosecutor’s team plans to publicly compare the actual ballots one by one there.
The 29th is the most likely date for the verification, though it could change depending on consultations with relevant agencies. Police cooperation is essential to control the site. The special prosecutor’s team made clear that this procedure is simply an evidentiary verification, not a recount in which ballots are counted again to challenge the election result.
The plan for this public verification first became known outside the government through a photo of a confidential report that President Lee Jae-myung posted on social media (SNS) on the 29th of last month. When text about a recount of ballots at Olympic Park was partially visible at the bottom of the photo, opposition parties, including the People Power Party, reacted vehemently, asking whether the special prosecutor’s team had directly briefed the Blue House on the investigation.
In response, the Blue House explained that the document was merely a National Police Agency public-safety report stating that concerns about clashes with rally participants had been resolved because the special prosecutor’s verification was postponed, and that it was unrelated to the investigation. The special prosecutor’s team also dismissed the allegation of direct reporting, saying it was conducting its investigation independently, without any political considerations.
Launched on the 7th of last month amid controversy over the infringement of voting rights, the Lee Tae-han special prosecutor’s team will conduct a sweeping investigation for up to 150 days into the ballot shortage, the pushing ahead of vote counting, statistical manipulation, hiring corruption at the election commission, and favoritism in private contracts, among other matters.
The special prosecutor’s team previously received relevant investigation records from the joint police-prosecution investigation headquarters and secured materials in a search of the National Election Commission on the 17th of last month. It is now summoning election commission officials one after another as witnesses, while keeping forensic investigators at the National Election Commission to closely examine the seized materials.   


[email protected] Kim Dong-gyu Reporter