More than 2,000 citizens claiming the June 3 local elections were fraudulent gathered at the Handball Stadium in Olympic Park, a main vote-counting site.
According to police unofficial estimates, as of 5:40 p.m. Thursday, 2,000 citizens and conservative-leaning YouTubers had converged on the Olympic Park Handball Stadium. After the ballot boxes were moved to the counting site, the protesters who gathered at the Handball Stadium around 9:30 a.m. surged from 300 at 11 a.m. to 700 at 4:30 p.m., 1,200 at 5 p.m., and 2,000 at 5:40 p.m.
The protesters claim there were procedural problems, alleging that the ballot boxes were transported and counted without observers present. Opposition figures also joined the ranks. Jang Dong-hyeok, leader of the People Power Party, and lawmakers Kim Eun-hye and Joo Jin-woo requested a meeting with the National Election Commission, saying they would verify whether the party's vote-counting observers were at the scene. Hwang Kyo-ahn, leader of Freedom and Innovation, who has raised allegations of election fraud, also chanted slogans alongside the protesters.
They have been building their ranks by sharing instructions to assemble at Olympic Park through YouTube broadcasts and online chat rooms related to election fraud. Jeon Han-gil (56, real name Jeon Yu-gwan), a YouTuber and former Korean history instructor who claims the election was rigged, held a loudspeaker and shouted, "Because this local election is fraudulent, all elections nationwide are void."
As the protesters occupied the area around the counting site's entrance, about 100 people, including National Election Commission staff who had finished their work, facility officials and reporters, were trapped. After persuasion from the reporters and staff trapped inside, the protesters verified identities using business cards and ID cards and allowed people to leave one by one.
The protesters, who had blockaded the No. 2 polling station in Jamsil 7-dong, Songpa-gu, Seoul, for three days, moved to the front of the counting site and expanded their numbers. The No. 2 polling station in Jamsil 7-dong was a location where the closing time was extended on the day of the June 3 local election after ballots ran out. Afterward, protesters claiming election fraud blockaded the polling station, saying they would prevent the ballot boxes from being removed, and two ballot boxes containing 2,000 votes could not be transported to the counting site for about 35 hours. On Thursday morning, police deployed about 1,000 officers from 18 riot police units to the No. 2 polling station in Jamsil 7-dong. Starting around 8:11 a.m., they dragged out protesters one by one by their hands and feet, and succeeded in entering the building about 40 minutes later. They dispersed the protesters and secured the ballot boxes, after which the counting was completed.
