More than 6,000 people gathered outside a vote-counting centre in Seoul on Friday night, demanding this week’s local elections be repeated after ballot shortages left some voters unable to cast their ballots.
The protest took place outside the SK Olympic Handball Stadium, where votes from Wednesday’s local elections were being counted.
Voters had gone to the polls to elect mayors, provincial governors, county officials and local assembly members.
Demonstrators waved South Korean flags and held signs calling for an “Election re-run,” as anger grew over voting disruptions in some parts of the country.
Yonhap news agency, citing unofficial police estimates, said the crowd exceeded 6,000 people.
Many protesters said they had joined the demonstration after seeing reports of ballot shortages and voting delays online.
Lee Ung-yeong, a 21-year-old Seoul resident, said he decided to take action after watching reports from polling stations.
“I was watching the election in real-time, and when I saw the reports about the lack of ballot papers, I thought this cannot stand,” he said.
He added that the National Election Commission’s explanations were inadequate, and that he had come to the protest after work.
Another protester, 30-year-old Park Gui-nam, said the problems had undermined a basic democratic right.
"This is a violation of the right to vote," Park said.
Neither the election commission nor the government immediately responded to calls from protesters for a new election.
The demonstrations came hours after National Election Commission chief Roh Tae-ak announced he would resign over the ballot shortages.
Roh said there was no excuse for a failure that had damaged public trust and confidence in the democratic process.
His resignation followed criticism over voting disruptions that affected dozens of polling stations across the country.
Election officials said 50 of the country's 14,300 polling stations ran out of ballot papers on election day. Voting was also temporarily suspended at 22 stations while additional supplies were delivered.
Yoon Jae-soo, head of the commission's election policy office, said the shortages were linked to unexpectedly high turnout during two days of early voting held last week.
Because of that early turnout, officials printed enough ballots for only half of those expected to vote on Wednesday. Yoon said there were enough ballots for 73% of eligible voters across the three-day voting period, while final turnout reached 63%.
The shortages led to long queues in some areas, with voters waiting for hours after polling stations were due to close at 6pm.
At one polling station in Seoul's Songpa district, tensions remained high after voting ended. An angry crowd blocked officials from transporting ballot boxes to the counting centre.
Some protesters stayed at the site through heavy rain until Friday morning. Hundreds of police officers later escorted election officials as they collected the final ballot boxes needed to complete the count.
Roh said an independent investigation would be carried out by outside experts and pledged to accept its findings.
The controversy has raised wider questions about confidence in South Korea's election system, even as officials insist the disruptions affected only a small proportion of polling stations nationwide.
Australia has returned two ancient stone statue heads to China, more than 30 years after they were taken from imperial tombs in central China....
The Financial Action Task Force (FATF), the global body responsible for monitoring money laundering and terrori...
The death toll from the ongoing Ebola outbreak in the Democratic Republic of Congo has surpassed 5,000, accordi...
The Middle East conflict remains tense as diplomatic efforts continue alongside renewed Houthi attacks. Iran says it remains open to mediation, while the Saudi-led coalition says it intercepted a ballistic missile fired towards the kingdom.
Evacuations and the provision of humanitarian aid in the Russian-occupied southern Ukrainian town of Oleshky have begun, a senior Ukrainian official said on Friday. In a statement on Telegram, David Arakhamia said a six-day ceasefire was holding, and that more details would follow.
Rescuers searched the wreckage of two high-speed trains in central Spain on Thursday as the death toll rose to a provisional 74, making it the country's second fatal high-speed rail disaster this year.
Russian President Vladimir Putin said Russia remains willing to rebuild relations with European countries but warned that any wider conflict on the continent would leave no winners, as he commented on recent diplomatic contacts with Nordic leaders and growing security concerns in the Baltic region.
Qatari mediators returned to Tehran on Friday as part of efforts to reach a deal between the U.S. and Iran, according to an official briefed on the talks.
The Financial Action Task Force (FATF), the global body responsible for monitoring money laundering and terrorist financing risks, has removed four countries from its so-called “grey list” after determining they had made sufficient progress in addressing weaknesses in their financial cr
The death toll from the ongoing Ebola outbreak in the Democratic Republic of Congo has surpassed 5,000, according to government figures released on Friday, as health authorities continue to struggle to contain the country's worst-ever Ebola epidemic.
A hacking group linked to North Korea is widely believed to be behind the theft of $6.3 billion from cryptocurrency giant Binance, a cyberattack that experts describe as the largest cryptocurrency heist on record.
Poland's long-running conflict over judicial independence and control of the Constitutional Tribunal intensified on Friday after the head of the country's top court was suspended, prompting President Karol Nawrocki to cut short an overseas trip and return to Warsaw amid mounting political tensions.
China’s GJ-21 carrier-based stealth reconnaissance and strike drone has completed its first take-off and landing on board the Sichuan, the country’s first Type 076 amphibious assault ship, state media reported on 30 October.
You can download the AnewZ application from Play Store and the App Store.
What is your opinion on this topic?
Leave the first comment