Election watchdog chief apologizes over errors

Roh Tae-ak, chairperson at the National Election Commission, speaks to reporters at its office in eastern Seoul, Saturday. Newsis

The chief of the National Election Commission (NEC) has apologized for management mistakes during last week’s early voting for the presidential election, vowing to make every effort to minimize such errors on Election Day on Tuesday.

“There were some management lapses,” Chairperson Roh Tae-ak told reporters at its office in eastern Seoul, Saturday. “I apologize for any confusion we may have caused voters.”

This came after the revelation that some voters held ballots outside one of the voting stations in Seoul, Thursday, — a violation of the Public Official Election Act. In a separate case the same day, a contract official responsible for distributing ballots was detained after voting twice, using both her own and her husband’s identification cards.

These unprecedented incidents occurred amid growing distrust in the commission’s competence and integrity as the national election watchdog — particularly among conservatives, some of whom have claimed instances of vote rigging in past elections.

Following media reports about the incidents, members of the People’s Welfare Countermeasure Committee, a civic group, filed a criminal complaint against Roh and other leaders of the commission, accusing them of dereliction of duty.

Roh promised to find the cause of the issues and take legal action against those responsible after the election.

His message followed NEC Secretary General Kim Yong-bin’s apology. In a statement released on Thursday, Kim admitted that the commission failed to prevent some voters from leaving the voting station with ballots and said that the “nonsensical” incident shouldn’t have happened.

However, Roh also expressed frustration over “organized attempts to obstruct” the work of election officials, accusing some election fraud conspiracy theorists of threatening and even physically attacking some officials.

“Some members of groups promoting election conspiracy theories tried to disrupt early voting management,” Roh said. “In some cases, election commission workers were injured … All this is illegal behavior that shakes the foundations of democracy and we will take stern action in response.”

According to the commission on Sunday, it has so far filed more than 170 complaints against people over alleged violations of the election law.

During the two-day early voting period — held Thursday and Friday — 34.74 percent of the 44.39 million eligible voters cast their ballots nationwide, marking the second-highest early voter turnout after the 36.93 percent recorded in the 2022 presidential election.