This photo shows a stamp for this year's presidential election scheduled on Tuesday. (Pool photo via Yonhap)
This photo shows a stamp for this year's presidential election scheduled on Tuesday. (Pool photo via Yonhap)

Rho Tae-ak, chair of the National Election Commission, said Monday in a written statement that transparency in election procedures and restoring the public trust in the June presidential election are the NEC's top priorities.

It was an apparent move to address growing voter concerns due to abnormalities at polling stations during early voting on Thursday and Friday, while conspiracy theories concerning the NEC's involvement in vote-rigging during the 2024 general election still linger.

Rho said election authorities will ensure that ballots cast during the early voting period remain under 24-hour watch until vote counting starts Tuesday evening. Paper ballots submitted during advance voting are to be counted manually, in addition to the automated ballot processing using machines. These measures have been taken since the general election in April 2024.

Moreover, authorities have employed independent observers to monitor polling stations nationwide, while introducing a new system for this year's election to estimate the number of early voters on an hourly basis.

"The National Election Commission has prepared for this election, placing our priority on ensuring transparency in the election process and reliability of the election outcome," Rho said.

This comes as 14,295 polling stations, including 4,574 in Seoul, are to operate from 6 a.m. to 8 p.m. under the monitoring of some 130,000 polling station staff nationwide Tuesday, with voters heading to their designated polling station. A total of 28,590 police officers will be dispatched for patrol duty.

Vote counting will take place at 254 locations. Over 70,000 workers will be involved in the process, while some 7,600 police officers will be deployed to the locations.

Rho said Tuesday's presidential election could be a cornerstone for South Korea to "not only overcome social conflict and confrontation, but also achieve harmony and hope" in his public statement.

The remarks follow a series of incidents at polling stations during the two-day early voting and persistent disputes over election authorities' management of polling stations.

On Sunday, a South Korean court issued an arrest warrant for a worker at a polling station in her 60s for casting a vote on behalf of her husband without him being present at the station on Thursday.

Police have also launched an investigation into a person who posted a marked paper ballot on social media site Douyin.

Additionally, the NEC has taken legal actions against those who caused commotion at the scene of polling stations.

Among them were a person who wrapped herself in a US national flag while working as an observer at a polling station in Incheon, a person taking photos of a polling station without authorization and swearing at polling station workers on Jeju Island, a man attempting to intrude in the election commission building in Hadong, South Gyeongsang Province, and a person who inflicted injury to a polling station worker while attempting to forcefully open the door of an election commission building in Suwon, Gyeonggi Province, among others.

The main conservative People Power Party claimed that negligence in polling station management was the reason public concerns about early voting have been growing. Rep. Kim Yong-tae, interim chief of the party, on Friday called for an all-out inspection of polling stations and suggested a law revision to require all early-voting ballot papers to carry the signature of a polling station staff member.

Tuesday's presidential election is being held extraordinarily to choose a new leader to take the place of former conservative President Yoon Suk Yeol, who was removed from office in April after the Constitutional Court confirmed his impeachment.

The disgraced former president had pointed to a purported threat of election-rigging in early voting and his belief that his People Power Party lost the 2024 general election to cheating as being behind his decision to deploy hundreds of soldiers to the NEC headquarters in Gwacheon, Gyeonggi Province, on Dec. 3, 2024, with the apparent intention to arrest dozens of election authorities.

Yoon, who has said he intended to inspect the election authorities, was impeached in mid-December and ousted in April for his hourslong imposition of martial law in December. His term was due to expire in May 2027.


consnow@heraldcorp.com