Exterior view of the Jeonbuk Special Self-Governing Province Election Commission [Provided by the Jeonbuk Special Self-Governing Province Election Commission]

The Jeonbuk Provincial Election Commission has refuted the "concealment allegations" that arose from the vote input error incident in the Jeonbuk Provincial Superintendent of Education race during the 9th National Simultaneous Local Elections, stating that the allegations are "contrary to the facts."

The Provincial Election Commission issued a statement on the 16th, saying, "The allegation that the commission falsely reported to a commission meeting as if there were no problems, despite clearly knowing about the vote input error, is not true."

According to the statement, a staff member in charge of elections at the Provincial Election Commission noticed an anomaly in the vote counting results from the Jeonju Wansan-gu Election Commission around 2:23 PM on the 4th, the day after the election, through an internal system inquiry.

Subsequently, they requested an explanation from the Wansan-gu Election Commission and learned about the erroneous input of the vote counting results from the 3rd polling station in Junghwasan 1-dong about an hour later, at around 3:20 PM.

A representative from the Provincial Election Commission stated, "At that time, a commission meeting was underway to finalize the winner, but we were unaware of the details beyond the fact that the input was erroneous."

They explained that the detailed vote counts for each candidate would have been known only through a report from the Wansan-gu Election Commission around 10:37 AM on the 5th, the following day, had the input been correct.

A representative from the Provincial Election Commission explained, "We could not report to the Election Commission Chairperson or members based on unclear facts. It was not an attempt to conceal the error, but rather an effort to process it after understanding the exact circumstances and facts."

Following this, the Provincial Election Commission prepared related reports over the weekend, reported them to the National Election Commission, and inquired about the possibility of correcting the vote count error.

They received a response and reported the matter to Kim Sang-gon, the Chairperson of the Provincial Election Commission, on the morning of the 9th. In accordance with the Chairperson's instructions, a commission meeting was convened on the 11th.

The Provincial Election Commission reiterated its apology, stating, "As an institution that must accurately protect the valuable votes of the electorate without distortion, we deeply reflect on the occurrence of this incident and feel a heavy sense of responsibility."

However, they added, "We did not systematically conceal any specific facts to evade responsibility," and "As staff members are currently being investigated as witnesses, we will participate in the investigation diligently."

Kim Sang-gon, Chairperson of the Jeonbuk Election Commission, makes a statement after leaving the conference room of the Jeonbuk Election Commission on the 11th. The Jeonbuk Election Commission held a meeting today to correct the vote input error that occurred during the vote counting process for the Jeonbuk Provincial Superintendent of Education in the 6.3 local elections. [Yonhap News]

This incident arose because the ballot report from the 3rd polling station in Junghwasan 1-dong, Wansan-gu, Jeonju, was incorrectly recorded as the 1st polling station in the Jeonbuk Provincial Superintendent of Education election.

As a result, an error occurred where the voting results of 1,104 voters from the 1st polling station were omitted.

If the vote counting had proceeded normally, there would have been no change in the winner. However, the vote difference between the elected Superintendent of Education for Jeonbuk, Chun Ho-seong, and candidate Lee Nam-ho would have narrowed from 118,644 votes to 118,625 votes, a difference of 19 votes.

The police are investigating Election Commission officials on charges such as obstruction of public service by abuse of authority.

The police are focusing their investigation on determining the exact facts, including whether there was an attempt to conceal the error during the internal reporting process of the Election Commission, or if it was simply a delay as claimed by the Provincial Election Commission.