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.
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