National Election Commission Actively Refutes President Yoon's Allegations of Election Fraud
Regulations Prohibit Foreigners from Participating in the Vote Counting Process
One Chinese Permanent Resident Participated as a Staff Member in the 21st General Election in Eunpyeong
On the 24th, the National Election Commission issued a clarification regarding the claim made by President Yoon Seok-yeol's side, who is undergoing impeachment proceedings, that Chinese nationals participated in election management and engaged in election fraud. According to current regulations, only Korean nationals are allowed to participate in election management.
The Election Commission responded on the same day to the allegations of election fraud raised by President Yoon's side.
Vote counting is underway at the counting center set up at Shingwang Girls' High School in Yongsan-gu, Seoul, during the 22nd National Assembly election. Photo by Jinhyung Kang aymsdream@
Regarding the claim that Chinese nationals participated in election management, the Election Commission stated, "Voting managers and early voting managers are appointed from among public officials belonging to the state or local governments or faculty and staff of schools at various levels," and added, "There has never been a case where foreigners were appointed as (early) voting managers."
Currently, due to the nature of vote counting in elections, which requires 300,000 to 400,000 personnel per election, the Election Commission faces difficulties in staffing vote counting officials solely with public officials, employees of public institutions, organizations, and banks. Therefore, there are regulations for vote counting officials based on the criterion of being 'fair and neutral individuals.' In this regard, the Election Commission explained, "(Early) voting officials and vote counting officials are not legally restricted by nationality, but to prevent unnecessary misunderstandings, the 2023 'Public Election Procedure Manual' was revised to allow appointments only to South Korean nationals."
Regarding the claim that there were foreign vote counting officials in the 21st general election, the Commission clarified that "there was one Chinese national who was a permanent resident of South Korea." However, among the 542 vote counting officials at that time, 62 were volunteer firefighters, and among them, six were suspected to be Chinese nationals, but five of those six were South Korean nationals.
Regarding President Yoon's side's claim that there were 120 election invalidation lawsuits in the 21st general election, the Election Commission stated, "The courts dismissed or rejected all of them." It was introduced that the Supreme Court at the time judged that the allegations of election result manipulation were "groundless" through recounts and expert evaluations.
The claim that "the Election Commission, as a constitutional institution, cannot investigate election fraud" was also stated to be untrue. The Election Commission responded, "We comply with search and seizure requests from investigative agencies based on warrants issued by the courts."
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