Residents gather outside the No. 2 polling station in Jamsil 7-dong, Songpa-gu, Seoul, on Wednesday, after voting hours were extended to 10 p.m. due to a ballot shortage during the June 3 local elections. (Yonhap)
Residents gather outside the No. 2 polling station in Jamsil 7-dong, Songpa-gu, Seoul, on Wednesday, after voting hours were extended to 10 p.m. due to a ballot shortage during the June 3 local elections. (Yonhap)

A ballot shortage at multiple polling stations in Seoul's Songpa-gu triggered a tense standoff late Wednesday, turning an election management failure into a dispute over voting rights as counting got underway in Korea's local elections.

A crowd gathered at No. 2 polling station in Jamsil 7-dong after voting there was extended because of a shortage of ballots. They demanded that ballots cast at the station be invalidated and that the ballot box not be removed from the site.

At around 12:30 a.m., Thursday, dozens of police officers were deployed as citizens continued to block the removal of a ballot box.

According to police and other authorities, several dozen riot police officers were sent as the standoff continued.

The polling station had earlier extended voting from the official 6 p.m. closing time to 10 p.m., but only for voters who had received waiting tickets before polls closed.

The main opposition People Power Party called for vote counting in Seoul to be suspended, citing ballot shortages at 14 polling stations in the capital, mostly in the southern region.

Oh Se-hoon, the opposition People Power Party candidate for Seoul, also said the count should be halted until preliminary measures were completed in areas affected by the shortages.

NEC Secretary General Huh Chul-hoon issued a public apology for causing "great confusion and concern to the public."

The shortage was especially acute in Songpa-gu, where election authorities were found to have printed ballots amounting to only about half of the district’s eligible voters.


hnpark@heraldcorp.com