Special counsel team moves local election ballots to storage from handball arena

SEOUL, Oct. 29 (Yonhap) -- A special counsel team removed boxes of ballot papers from a handball arena in southeastern Seoul on Thursday, as part of its investigation into a ballot shortage during the June local elections. The team, led by Special Counsel Lee Tae-han, inspected all 2.47 million ballots over the course of over 12 hours on the night of October 28, placing them in approximately 420 boxes.

All but 13 of these boxes were transported to a storage facility managed by the National Election Commission (NEC). The remaining 13 boxes, along with the ballots inside, will undergo further examination and may be sent to the National Forensic Service for closer scrutiny. The handball arena, where the ballots were originally stored, had been sealed by protesters since June, demanding accountability for the shortage and a re-run of the elections.

Riot police were present during the inspection to maintain order, but no major incidents were reported. Opposition leader Jang Dong-hyeok staged a sit-in overnight to prevent the removal of the ballot boxes, alleging numerous instances of election fraud, including damaged seals, mixed ballots, and irregularly colored or laid-out ballots.