After an unprecedented incident in which ballot shortages delayed voting in the June 3 local elections, criticism condemning poor election management is mounting at major universities in Seoul.
According to reporting compiled by the Seoul Economic Daily on the 4th, a student at Yonsei University posted a wall poster under their real name calling for action at the student council level regarding the ballot shortage. The poster stated, "(The ballot shortage) is not a simple administrative error but an event that shook the foundation of democracy, in which citizens' right to political participation was infringed upon by the incompetence of state institutions." It added a demand to "immediately convene a student general assembly by authority, with the agenda of condemning and responding to the ballot shortage in the June 3 local elections."
A signature campaign was also found to be currently underway. According to the poster's author, as of 1:53 p.m. that day, a total of around 304 people had participated in the signature campaign.
The situation was similar at Seoul National University. On an on-campus community at Seoul National University, a poll asking "whether to vote on Seoul National University students' desire for a re-election" was posted around 9:28 p.m. the previous day. As of 9:20 a.m. that day, 12 hours after the poll was posted, 281 people had participated, and among them, 91.8% (258 people) said "a re-election should be held."
Named wall posters were also found to have been shared on on-campus communities at Sungkyunkwan University and Sogang University. A master's student at Sungkyunkwan University argued in a poster, "The ballot shortage, voting delays, and standoffs over the removal of ballot boxes that arose in this local election are a grave matter that undermined trust in elections," adding, "Voting is the flower of democracy, and the root of that flower has rotted."
Meanwhile, according to the National Election Commission, in the 9th nationwide simultaneous local elections held the previous day, voting was temporarily suspended due to ballot shortages at 15 locations, including 11 in Songpa-gu, 2 in Gangnam-gu, 1 in Gwangjin-gu, and 1 in Dongjak-gu. The commission extended voting hours after supplying ballots, but maintains that the ballot shortage does not constitute grounds for postponing the election or holding a re-election.
President Lee Jae-myung, marking the first anniversary of his inauguration, said at a senior secretaries' meeting he presided over at the presidential office that day, regarding the ballot shortage, "I express very great regret that a problem arose related to the people's sacred right to political participation."
He then stressed to relevant agencies, "The executive branch must use all of its authority and responsibility to clearly identify the reasons the problem occurred, and if there is anything to be held accountable for, accountability must be clearly pursued." He added, "I ask that you swiftly prepare reliable and appropriate measures so that the people's right to political participation is never again undermined in the slightest."
