The Supreme Court has ruled that the by-elections for the National Assembly held in Daegu Jung-gu and Nam-gu and Incheon Gyeyang-gu E in March and June 2022 were not fraudulent elections.
The Supreme Court's Third Division (Presiding Justice Eom Sang-pil) on the 9th ruled against attorney Do Tae-woo and others in their lawsuit seeking to nullify the National Assembly election results against the Daegu Jung-gu and Nam-gu Election Commission. Election nullification lawsuits are handled by the Supreme Court as a single instance.
In the March 2022 by-election held after former National Assembly member Kwak Sang-do of Daegu Jung-gu and Nam-gu resigned, independent candidate Lim Byung-heon was elected with 22.39% of the vote. Attorney Do ran as an independent and lost, placing fourth with 18.64% of the vote. He later filed a lawsuit with 10 residents of Jung-gu and Nam-gu, claiming that upon reviewing the ballots in the counted ballot boxes, circumstances suggesting election fraud were found.
The Supreme Court rejected all of attorney Do’s claims, which included allegations that early voting by COVID-19 confirmed patients and quarantined individuals violated the principle of secret ballot, and that signatures of election observers on the special seals of the early voting boxes in the district were forged.
Additionally, the Supreme Court's Third Division (Presiding Justice Lee Heung-gu) ruled against conservative civic group ‘Free Conservative Democracy Navigation’ Secretary-General Oh Kyung-young and others in their lawsuit seeking to nullify the National Assembly election results against the Incheon Gyeyang-gu Election Commission.
In the Incheon Gyeyang E by-election held on June 1, 2022, following the resignation of Democratic Party lawmaker Song Young-gil, Democratic Party leader Lee Jae-myung was elected. Oh and others, who were voters, filed a lawsuit claiming that the Gyeyang Election Commission staff committed illegal acts such as ballot forgery and election result manipulation during the election.
However, the Supreme Court dismissed all of Oh’s claims, including ▲manipulation of early voting results ▲existence of forged ballots ▲non-use of official ballots in early voting ▲violations of the secret ballot principle and vote result verifiability principle ▲issues related to the use of ballot sorting machines.
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