Special prosecutor searches National Election Commission and others over alleged favoritism in early-voting ballot printer project

[Financial News] Lee Tae-han’s special prosecutor team, which is investigating allegations of misconduct at the National Election Commission, has launched a compulsory investigation of the Commission and others over allegations that a particular company received preferential treatment in an early-voting ballot printer project.
The special prosecutor’s team said in a notice to the media on the 4th that it had begun search-and-seizure operations at 9 a.m. that day at the National Election Commission’s Election Infrastructure Division, as well as the offices and factory of the ballot printer company. A total of 32 people were deployed, including two prosecutors and 10 digital forensics investigators.
Based on its own investigation and materials forwarded by the Board of Audit and Inspection, the special prosecutor’s team uncovered indications that the National Election Commission had granted preferential treatment to a particular company in a project to manufacture 2024-model early-voting ballot printers and purchase consumables.
According to the special prosecutor’s team, the National Election Commission is suspected of leaking the project plan to the company before the bidding notice was issued. After the equipment performance evaluation, the company arbitrarily modified the printers so they would recognize only the proprietary ink it produced, in breach of its contract. The investigation found that the Commission turned a blind eye to this.
The National Election Commission also appears to have changed its internal guidelines to require election commissions at all levels to purchase consumables such as ink from the company through sole-source contracts, even though they had been supposed to buy them from small enterprises or small-business owners. The special prosecutor’s team believes this created a structure that allowed the company to monopolize the supply of consumables such as ink for the 10-year service life of the printers.
The total value of the related projects comes to 45.9 billion won. The manufacturing project, which involves supplying about 17,000 printers, is worth about 32.1 billion won, making it the largest project commissioned by the National Election Commission in the past five years. The company also exclusively supplied consumables such as ink and maintenance boxes from December 2023 through July this year, for a total of 13.8 billion won.
Based on its analysis of the seized materials, the special prosecutor’s team plans to determine whether there was collusion between National Election Commission officials in charge and the company, how improper preferential treatment was granted, and the scale of the resulting damage to the state.
 



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