Official response submitted by the Songpa Youth Center to the Seoul Eastern District Court

Attorney Kim Jung-chul, a member of the Reform Party's Supreme Council, revealed evidence on the 6th that points to potential election fraud. 

The document he disclosed is an official response submitted by the Songpa Youth Center to the Seoul Eastern District Court.

According to the document, at the Moonjeong 2-dong Polling Station No. 1 on election day, June 3, CCTV recording was completely suspended for 14 hours—from 4:00 AM to 6:21 PM—at the request of the Songpa-gu Election Commission. The CCTV was turned back on only after the voting concluded. 

He criticized the Election Commission's excuse that this was done to "ensure the secrecy of the vote," stating, "The eyes were precisely shut during the very hours when the public should have been watching."

"There is no clause in the Public Official Election Act that requires turning off CCTV at polling stations," he pointed out. "It is merely an internal manual created by the Election Commission itself. It is not a law passed by the National Assembly, but a rule written by an institution that should be subject to oversight, effectively blinding the public."

He further criticized the action, stating, "Even that manual only says to 'cover or suspend.' Voting secrecy is maintained by simply shielding the direction of the voting booth. They chose to cut off the entire polling station for 14 hours when a simple screen would have sufficed. They opted for maximum obstruction when minimal measures would have been enough." 

He also pointed out that the Election Commission's logic is contradictory. 

"The Election Commission has boasted that it provides 24-hour real-time CCTV monitoring of ballot box storage. If CCTV is proof of integrity during storage, why does it become an enemy of secrecy during voting? During those 14 hours when the cameras were off, ballots ran out right there in Songpa, causing citizens to be turned away. Now, there is no video footage to verify what happened at the scene."

Furthermore, he asserted that the secrecy of the vote is a principle meant to protect voters, not a shield to hide poor election management from public scrutiny.

He then put forward the following demands:

First, the Election Commission must immediately disclose the status of CCTV suspensions at polling stations nationwide on June 3, and clarify who created and approved those guidelines.

Second, the National Assembly should establish guidelines that make the continuous operation of polling station CCTV mandatory, require the retention of footage for at least five years, and limit filming restrictions solely to the interior of individual voting booths. 

Third, the Election Commission must cooperate sincerely with ongoing judicial processes. Those who hide evidence are the ones with the most to conceal.

He concluded his statement by saying, "An election that the public cannot oversee is not a public election." 

However, he drew criticism from netizens for an off-topic question in the middle of his statement: "Is this perhaps to hide the fact that only local government officials, and not Election Commission staff, work on election day?"

One netizen remarked, "It was good until the disclosure of the official document, but he veered off course," adding, "There was no need to label it a 'poorly managed election'; the public can decide for themselves whether it was a case of fraud or incompetence." 

Reporter Lim Yo-hee