[6.3 election ②] Public suspicion toward the ruling government will grow day by day unless...

log date: 2026-6-22
Rewrote: 2026-7-7

Controversies over election fraud are ongoing in many countries around the world, and while the United States was investigating allegations of past election fraud, Mike Lindell, a righteous businessman, uncovered fraud related to electronic voting machines and exposed it to the world, which served as a catalyst for many countries to switch their election systems to analog methods.

-----------------------------------------------------------------------------

* National Eleciton Commission (hereinafter NEC)

Dong-hyeok Jahng (장동혁), leader of the major opposition party, who most frequently visits protest sites at Olympic Park and acts together with people angered by the deprivation of their voting rights. Lawmaker Jahng who calls for a re-election due to the NEC's dereliction of duty is receiving strong public support. Reported by KBS News, Photo by Yonhap News.

South Korea recently held a chaotic election marred by anti-democratic acts perpetrated by a corrupt organization. A re-election should have been held immediately to rectify the situation, and while many foreigners who watched the election expected this to happen, the ruling political power made no effort whatsoever and is reportedly threatening the politician(s) calling for a re-election.

The entire nation is engulfed in anger as results of large-scale fraud poured out from across the country during the local elections held a month ago.

The reason South Korea's election fraud scandal continues to be newsworthy is that the South Korean government and the ruling party are responding to those enraged public with a brazen attitude.

The current administration is ignoring the voices of the people demanding a re-election, acting as if nothing happened. The shameless silence of the ruling party lawmakers, who hold over 180 seats, is causing bewilderment throughout the world.

South Korea's ruling power seems to be delusional. It appears to believe that foreign countries are completely unaware of the rigged election that occurred within their borders.

However, in reality, political forces and foreign policy experts in various countries are watching all elections around the world with deep interest. When planning or modifying projects with foreign countries, the electoral system of the partner country inevitably has an influence.

In a democratic system, the corruption of political forces is bound to be revealed through elections.

If a re-election had been held immediately after the NEC's misconduct was confirmed during the last local elections, the image of South Korea among foreigners would have significantly improved, and the trust of foreign ruling powers in the South Korean government would also have greatly increased.

It was a golden opportunity to dispel doubts about South Korea, but it is regrettable that the ruling government is missing this opportunity by downplaying the importance of holding a re-election.

I sincerely hope that South Korean government wake up and hold a re-election as soon as possible so that they can govern with stronger public support. Unless a re-election is held, public suspicion toward the ruling government will grow day by day.

Inspection details including ballot sorting machine maintenance. Provided by a SNS user.

The reason I came to write a longer piece about the NEC's scandal 

South Korea failed to win the Canadian submarine contract. Public analyses regarding the reasons for this failure are largely divided into two categories.

The first is NATO. The argument is that since Canada, as a Commonwealth nation, is making various efforts to cooperate with Europe, choosing Germany was a predetermined outcome from the start. 

Another argument is that this situation occurred due to the incompetence of the current South Korean government and the ruling party.

However, I view two other reasons as the cause.

In my review, this is because Hanwha took the lead in this open bidding for submarines. If Daewoo Shipbuilding & Marine Engineering or Hyundai Heavy Industries, which independently built the Dosan Ahn Chang-ho submarine, had put effort into winning this submarine project, they would have had a good chance of winning, and I believe they might have won thanks to the generous incentives the Korean government offered to Canada in this competition.

Experts inside and outside Canada also predicted that the project would be distributed equally between the two countries, as the conditions proposed by the Korean side were excessively generous and the trial operation of a submarine via Hawaii was a massive gesture of goodwill that could not be ignored.

Nevertheless, Canadian Prime Minister Carney went all-in on Germany. This result is by no means unrelated to the corruption South Korea exposed during the recent local elections. Even if I were PM Carney and grateful for the sincerity shown by South Korea, I would have ended up making the same decision.

In fact, as the severity of the collusion between the ruling party and the NEC Korea was exposed to the whole world, many people who had supported Korean submarine engineers had to stop cheering out of concern over the signing of the contract with South Korea.

What country on earth could enter into a contract lasting for decades with a government so corrupt that it cannot even nullify an election where blatant fraud occurred?

Election Equipment Production Plan for the 22nd National Assembly Election.
Source: NEC Korea

It is a reasonable estimate that the probability of war breaking out in Canada is very low. Like South Korea, Canada is not by nature a country that commits the reckless act of invading other nations.

If Canada, however, were to be swept up in a war rather than sending military units for humanitarian aid, there would be only one cause. It is likely to be a struggle for vested interests over the Arctic shipping route, and there is a possibility that the United States could turn from a friend country into an enemy.

In reality, Canada has heard remarks bordering on threats from the United States on several occasions, and it is true that relations between the two countries appear uneasy.

Nevertheless, it is merely that their relationship is literally uncomfortable, and the two countries have no choice but to cooperate and share resources across many industries. Furthermore, their citizens of both nations are very close, and it is quite common for family members to actually reside in the neighboring country.

While many view the current tension between the two nations as merely superficial, the United States has recently deployed small troop units to several South American countries. This explains why Canada is investing heavily in acquiring weapons, including submarines.

Why Germany and not South Korea?

For one thing, Hanwha Ocean is a company with very close ties to the United States. The defense industry accounts for a significant portion of the U.S. economy, and Hanwha is so deeply involved in this sector that it appears almost like a domestic company both inside and outside the U.S.

For this reason, Canada's decision to cooperate with Germany on submarine acquisition project was such an obvious fact that it didn't even make the news, much like saying the sun will rise tomorrow.

Attorney Tae-woo Doh reveals on Facebook about the in-district early voting ballots with no creases.

What could be the other reason?

As aforementioned, this is because the level of corruption in South Korea appears to be quite serious.

Below are the cases to help people around the world understand how the last local elections in South Korea were conducted.

Believe or not, the following cases are just the tip of the iceberg.

The scale of evidence regarding misconduct, dereliction of duty, abuse of power, and fraud by the NEC Korea is enormous. The reasons why the ruling government and party failed to announce a re-election, despite knowing that they could not continue to govern without holding one, are gradually becoming clear.

Case 1

Gi-cheol Goh (고기철), the former People Power Party candidate who lost the by-election for National Assembly member in Seogwipo City, has filed a lawsuit with the Supreme Court seeking to invalidate the election and the election results. Reported by KBS News in Jeju.

Former Candidate Gi-cheol Goh held a press conference at a local place and stated that he filed the lawsuit to verify the fairness and integrity of the election, citing the discovery of numerous ballots that showed no signs of being folded or had their serial numbers left intact, as well as a tip-off from young voters residing in Joongahng-dong, Seogwipo City, who claimed they were unable to vote because the NEC did not provide them with ballot papers.

Case 2

Boxes for storing ballots are stacked inside the vote counting station at Olympic Park in Songpa-gu, Seoul, as members of the National Assembly Investigation Committee including the chairman visited.
Photo by National Assembly Photo Journalists Association

As of today, a parliamentary investigation is underway in South Korea against the NEC for depriving voters' rights by failing to provide them with ballot papers during the last local elections.

Reports have emerged that the NEC, having completed vote counting at the Songpa-gu Handball Stadium, stored ballot boxes in the shower room on the first floor of the stadium.

Despite the presence of ample empty space within the building—even areas equipped with CCTVs—the NEC chose to stack hundreds of ballot boxes in the shower room.

Why did they do this?

This is presumed to be because they could use the excuse that there is no video footage monitoring the scene. For this reason, it appears highly likely that the NEC committed criminal acts using ballot boxes and ballot paper boxes.

Case 3

Photo by Yonhap News

There were about a dozen lawmakers from the National Assembly Investigation Committee who participated in the on-site investigation. Although they were surprised to see hundreds of ballot boxes stacked haphazardly, they made no effort to actually count the boxes to verify the exact number of ballots.

If they were going to ask NEC staff about the number of ballot boxes even after arriving at the site, what was the point of the committee members going there in the first place?

Whilst it was stated that 2.47 million ballots were stored at the site, nobody knew how this number was calculated, and no NEC staff member could provide an exact figure on how many boxes the ballots were divided into.

The NEC employee appeared unaware that their duty was to manage the election, even as they answered that they did not know how many ballots were being stored in which boxes. 

The NEC Korea seemed unaware of how the election should be managed.

Case 4 

The major opposition party spokesperson Soo-jin Choe (최수진) criticized the joint business trips of the NEC and officials of the ruling party. “NEC employees accompanied ruling party officials on overseas business trips to Japan and Cambodia in 2023. They squandered over 20 million won in tax money on these two trips.” Reported by Dong-ah, Photo by News1.

Due to extremely low voter turnout in local elections, the outcome in every constituency is often decided by a margin of just tens or hundreds of votes. It is a scene of utter chaos, with no way to know how many candidates' results may have been altered by the NEC's lack of countermeasures and irresponsible conduct. It is understood that South Korea's elections have been conducted in disarray for decades, and many politicians were aware of this fact.

It has been confirmed that politicians of the ruling party allocated state funds to the NEC budget and then used those funds to travel abroad with NEC staff.

If the NEC executives who have refused audits under the pretext that they are an institution obligated to maintain neutrality and independence under the Constitution, were close enough to travel abroad with politicians of the ruling party and dine at high-end restaurants, is it possible that there were no quid pro quo elections for the politicians particularly favored by the NEC?

Source: rebuildcorea.org

Case 5
The law stipulates that sole-source contracts cannot exceed 20 million won according to a lawmaker in South Korea; however, the NEC Korea awarded over 500 million won worth of work to a single printing company through sole-source (no-bid) contracts.

Provided by a South Korean lawmaker

It is reported that the printing company in question is located more than 300 kilometers away from the NEC headquarters. It is said that there are over a thousand printing companies between the specific printing company shown in the screenshot above and Seoul, where the NEC is located.

It appears that a public insitution that has not even undergone an audit has misappropriated public funds for private gain through a private contract.

Would this be newsworthy? Probably.

Would South Korean reporters publish it as a news story? Of course not.

Looking at the state of South Korea, one realizes just how corrupt a country without a press can be, and how a corrupt nation can pretend to be a developed country.

Distressed at the news about South Korea, a country that I happened to be fond of, being destroyed.