If even election data is manipulated, what is the point of voters casting their ballots?

log date: 2026-8-5

The National Election Commission (hereinafter NEC) in South Korea has been enjoying preferential treatment for decades while evading audits under the pretext of being an "independent body under the Constitution."

Cheol-hwan Wee (위철환), the current acting chairman of the NEC, whose substantive position of standing commissioner was appointed by the incumbent President Lee. Furthermore, Wee and Lee are known to be very close as classmates at the Judicial Research and Training Institute.

At the time of Wee's appointment for a seat of the Standing Commissioner of NEC Korea, opposition lawmakers and the public criticized that the appointment was highly inappropriate. Nonetheless, Lee and the ruling party dismissed these concerns. In essence, the public is suffering serious harm due to a government that has violated legal provisions of conflict of interest and pursued only its own interests.

Now that serious irregularities in the most recent election are being revealed, President Lee has remained silent regarding all the NEC's criminal activities and has turned a blind eye for over two months since the election day on June 3, 2026.

기존 = original data, 수정본 = manipulated data with fake numbers.
When the NEC headquarters was inquired on how to rectify the issue of significantly inflated vote counts by polling stations, they responded, "Correcting the vote count for only one polling station would reduce the amount of data released, which could raise suspicions among voters. Instead of correcting the error, apply the manipulated data to other polling stations in the same area," as seen in the screenshot above. The NEC headquarters even provided specific instructions, along with example Excel files to conceal their wrongdoings, which came up with an idea that small numerical changes tend to go unnoticed. Apparently, the NEC headquarters did not want to leave any traces of manipulation. 

With a brief released today, a lawmaker emphasized that the NEC appears to have infringed upon the people's right to vote, as it seems to have committed intentional, specific, and repeated election data manipulation in past elections as well. Streamed by 시사focus 2026-8-3.

On August 3, 2026, lawmaker Eun-hye Gihm (김은혜) a member of the Special Investigation Committee on the NEC scandal representing a major opposition party, held a press conference at the National Assembly and announced highly shocking investigation results.

"It has been revealed that the right to vote, the foundation of democracy, was undermined by the misconduct of the NEC. While the NEC has so far dismissed all evidence of misconduct as "mere human error," the facts revealed by a brief titled 'Verification details regarding erroneous entry of voter counts' which will be disseminated at a later time, say the opposite."

The brief disclosed by lawmaker Gihm at the aforementioned press conference was submitted to Acting Chairman Wee (위철환) of the NEC last week (the fifth week of July). The submission date is after July 23, 2026 when it was revealed that the NEC had manipulated voter count data to conceal their own errors.

It is reported that the NEC's guidelines included detailed instructions on how NEC employees should manipulate vote counts in the system to avoid detection, with the attached Excel files presenting even instances of data manipulation, despite the fact that they constitute a violation of relevant laws and regulations.

NEC Korea mobilized a distributed input method to create unknown vote counts and vote percentage desired.

Lawmaker Gihm asked reporters whether the NEC's instructions for data manipulation could truly be viewed as mere administrative incompetence or error, instead of criminal acts. KBS News on 2026-8-3.

Gihm pointed out that the value of ballots cast by voters who took the time to visit polling stations and mark their votes has been diminished by the NEC's data manipulation with fragmented input, thereby undermining the principles of democracy.

She also stated, "President Lee, who posts on social media multiple times a day, has failed to offer any comments or explanation for over a week since the unprecedented circumstances of election data manipulation committed by the NEC were revealed. Why is President Lee remaining silent in the face of this massive tragedy where the legitimate rights of the people have been violated?"

"The way to restore broken trust in our electoral system is to quickly launch a special counsel team to investigate and uncover the full extent of the NEC scandal without any sacred cows. I will reveal the truth together with our party members so that no doubts remain."

"Until now, we did not know how deeply NEC headquarters was involved in the process of the local election commissions concealing incorrect data entry through illegal acts. However, the brief has confirmed that the NEC headquarters directly instructed data manipulation and how that manipulation was executed."

"In general, when data entry errors occur, correcting them immediately on the spot is the first step in preserving trust in the election process, which is the foundation of democracy."

"However, according to the brief released today, the NEC instructed to manipulate data at other polling stations to conceal the errors."

"Apparently, the NEC's sole objective was to avoid detection. In order to prevent data entry errors from being exposed, they chose manipulation instead of correction."

"According to the results of the investigation so far, 72 cases of data manipulation were reported, and similar input errors were confirmed at 56 local polling stations. Since the brief I mentioned today confirmed that the NEC issued guidelines, it can be inferred that the NEC likely issued similar instructions to other local election commissions where voter count numbers were incorrectly entered."

"Considering that the election proceeded in a complacent atmosphere where manipulation was tolerated as long as it was not detected, I believe it is highly probable that such incidents occurred not only in this election but also in previous ones."

"The core of all these suspicions lies with the NEC, and it is deeply regrettable that the incumbent president and his office has not offered any comment or explanation since Acting Chairman Wee read the brief in subject. For this very reason, I believe the Special Counsel Team must be formed promptly to uncover the truth without any immutable clauses so that the NEC scandal can be investigated to the very bottom."

Lawmaker Gihm is explaining that the NEC headquarters prepared guidelines on how to manipulate election data to avoid detection and sent them to local election commissions.

Lawmaker Gihm said that it appeared the voter count was increased or decreased simply to conceal mistakes, but in my opinion, this seems highly unlikely.

The purpose of manipulating vote counts was likely to alter vote percentage, and it is reasonable to presume that the act of inputting manipulated data was required to change the election outcome.

Therefore, It is common sense to assume that the cause of massaging the election data and the reason for reducing the ballot paper distribution are related.

I had previously posted about various types of crimes committed by the NEC Korea. I covered everything from hiring irregularities to fraud in election procedures along with allegations regarding election equipment. Seeing today that newly found crime of election data manipulation has been added, I came to wonder if readers still could think of any crime that NEC Korea has not yet committed.

In fact, a South Korean editor commented about it three years ago that in his opinion, it had already reached the point where some of those who publicly raised issues regarding the corruption of the electoral system in South Korea had died under suspicious circumstances.

I sincerely hope that their deaths were not in vain, and I also hope that the NEC Korea will be dissolved, the electoral system reformed, and a re-election held before the end of 2026.

There are already plenty of reasons to hold a re-election, yet postponing it is tantamount to neglecting the reality where those 'never-been-elected' and unqualified high-ranking public officials may ruin societies through harmful decisions until the most recent election results are nullified.

Listing the suspicions currently held by the public regarding the NEC Korea:

• manipulation of election data;
• defamation of the honor of the nation and its people through corrupt election management and absurd ballot box (holder) manufacturing;
• embezzlement of public funds through illegal sole-source contracts;
• malicious attempts with manipulating elections in other countries by selling substandard election equipment;
• illegal intervention in election results through ballot discrimination;
• dereliction of duty;
• violence that deprived the people's right to vote;
• mockery of the people through habitual lies in responses provided to the public;
• abuse of power;
• hiring corruption excessive granting of preferential treatment;
• intimidation;
• coercion and bullying;
• violation of the Public Official Election Act;
• habitual violation of the Election Management Act;
• perjury;
• accounting fraud;
• collusion with political circles;
• inflated budget bill;
• suspicions of illegal kickbacks;
• squandering of public funds under the pretext of studying abroad;
• forgery of official documents;
• manipulation of public statistical data;
• insult to the people and the like.

*  A few serious crime items are omitted.

**  The crimes listed above are based on publicly disclosed criminal facts.

A document titled as Example Table of Distributed Input delivered to a local election commission.