Overview
- Ballot-paper shortfalls on June 3 disrupted voting at 26 polling stations and triggered large protests, delayed counts and local unrest in Seoul's Jamsil area.
- An external six-member NEC fact-finding committee launched on June 10 completed its weeklong review on June 19 and found 140 of 14,288 polling stations had requested extra ballots, 91 used them, and 26 experienced at least temporary disruption.
- The committee formally recommended that former NEC chairman Roh Tae-ak and other senior officials be referred to prosecutors for criminal investigation and called for a sweeping overhaul of the commission.
- Police and a joint police-prosecution team have carried out raids and preservation orders on NEC records and ballot boxes, and a 45-day parliamentary probe is underway to examine management failures.
- The episode has prompted debate over structural reform of the NEC, including proposals from President Lee to consider constitutional or legal changes, while officials say a nationwide rerun is unlikely without proof that shortages changed results.