An election-related sculpture is seen at the National Election Commission in Gwacheon, Gyeonggi-do, on the 18th, as the '7th Meeting of the Committee for Fact-Finding on the Ballot Shortage Incident' is held. [Yonhap News] 

The National Election Commission (NEC) announced on the 18th that it had received 350 election appeals regarding the June 3 local elections, across both the central NEC and the 17 city and provincial election commissions.

A total of 271 appeals were filed with the central NEC as of the previous day, while 79 appeals were filed with the city and provincial commissions as of the 16th.

This figure is approximately 7.7 times higher than the number of appeals received during the 2022 local elections (45 cases).

The appeals filed with the central NEC consist of 126 regarding metropolitan heads of government, 67 regarding superintendents of education, 59 regarding proportional representative metropolitan council members, 5 regarding Sejong City council members, and 14 unspecified election-related cases.

Among these, 28 appeals were related to the Seoul mayoral election.

The number of appeals filed with the central NEC has increased by approximately 20.8 times compared to the 2022 local elections (13 cases).

Appeals filed with the 17 city and provincial election commissions include 21 regarding heads of local governments, 19 regarding constituency-based metropolitan council members, 27 regarding constituency-based local council members, and 12 regarding proportional representative local council members.

The NEC explained that this figure is about 2.4 times higher than that of the 2022 local elections (32 cases), and could further increase once the tallying of mail-in appeals and other submissions is completed.

According to the Public Official Election Act, appeals are categorized into election appeals, which challenge the validity of an election, and candidacy appeals, which challenge the validity of the elected winner.

Election appeals may be filed by voters, candidates, or political parties that nominated candidates with the competent election commission within two weeks of the election date. The deadline for filing election appeals was the 17th.

Candidacy appeals must be filed by candidates or political parties with the competent election commission within two weeks of the date the winner is determined; the deadline for these is today.

However, for the Seoul mayoral election, where the announcement of the winner was delayed, candidacy appeals can be filed until the 19th.

Once an appeal is received, the Election Commission's Appeal Review Committee must reach a decision within 60 days.

If the commission accepts an appeal, a re-election must be held within 30 days of the notification of the decision; if the appeal is dismissed or rejected, the appellant may challenge the decision in court.