The shadow of the June 3 local elections, the political confrontation brought about by the ‘twin vote’ controversy and the beginning of a special investigation. > News

The core of this suspicion raised by People Power Party representative Jang Dong-hyuk is the statistical irrationality of the vote counting results. It has been pointed out that the discovery of 869 cases of 'twin votes' and 15 cases of 'triplet votes' nationwide is an extremely unusual phenomenon statistically. Representative Jang compared this to the 0.35% probability of the Korean national team winning the World Cup, and sharply criticized the National Election Commission's claim that the 'probabilistic possibility' is nothing more than an irresponsible evasion and not scientific basis. The fact that the National Election Commission's Truth Investigation Committee excluded these phenomena from the scope of investigation cannot be free from criticism that it is a 'self-indulgence' that ignores the essence of the situation and tries to cover up the problem. The 35 cases of election appeals and the possibility of additional ballot counting errors prove that the situation is by no means a temporary occurrence.

The controversy over the National Election Commission's mismanagement goes beyond simple errors in data and exposes loopholes in the preservation of physical evidence. The incident in which the Songpa-gu National Election Commission was caught attempting to take out luggage from a temporary office during a search and seizure process clearly shows how lax the discipline of election management agencies has become. In particular, the case where a ballot box that was already reported to have been discarded was discovered through an external YouTuber is pointed out as strong evidence that the principle of evidence preservation has been broken. The National Election Commission arbitrarily determines that the evidence in question has 'no evidentiary value', but the legal and political circles strongly criticize the National Election Commission's arbitrary attitude, emphasizing that only the judiciary has the authority to judge the validity of the evidence. This series of incidents is spreading negative public opinion that the National Election Commission is denying its own reason for existence.

Representative Jang Dong-hyuk's proposal for a three-party meeting is the result of a combination of political calculations to break through the deadlocked political situation and the cause of uncovering the truth. He actively utilized Prime Minister Kim Min-seok's call for the dissolution of the National Election Commission and Representative Chung Cheong-rae's stance in favor of a special prosecutor, strongly urging the opening of a forum for dialogue that is not limited by format. This is not simply an offensive by the opposition party, but is interpreted as an inevitable choice to secure legitimacy at the government level in a situation where the credibility of the election system has already run out. Repeated mistakes such as missing votes and reverse input of votes in the Gyeonggi Superintendent of Education election have led to distrust in the overall election administration, and the People Power Party's consistent position is that there is now no way to resolve the public's doubts without a powerful external tool called a special prosecutor.

The People Power Party's pressure on the Democratic Party of Korea and the government is expected to intensify. Party leaders, including senior floor spokesperson Choi Soo-jin, even summoned past cases from the National Election Commission and defined this incident as a structural corruption of the system, not a simple technical mistake. It is believed that the National Election Commission's chronic problems, which have continued in the past from the 'colander voting' controversy to corruption in the hiring of relatives, exploded in this local election. In particular, past cases where the National Election Commission absolved the issue of false information in election publicity materials by saying 'there was no reason' are currently being used as a decisive indicator showing that the National Election Commission has completely lost its ability to clean up. In the end, voices are gaining ground that finding the truth without sanctuaries and fundamental reform of the electoral system are the only ways to ensure the fairness of future elections.