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| Members of a civic group hold a press conference to condemn the National Election Commission's poor handling of the early voting for the March 9 presidential election, near the Gwanghwamun Station in central Seoul, Monday. Korea Times photo by Bae Woo-han |
Main opposition PPP threatens to impeach NEC chief Noh Jeong-hee
By Jung Da-min
The National Election Commission (NEC) has launched a special task force to investigate the agency's mishandling of early voting procedures for the March 9 presidential election. The NEC held a closed-door plenary session, Monday, to discuss the formation of the task force. The agency's commissioner, Cho Byoung-hyun, will head the task force and also be in charge appointing its members, according to the NEC's press release after the meeting.
According to Sunday's media reports, the task force is expected to consist of seven members, including Cho as the head and four outside consultants.
The NEC said the task force will operate until April 18. The election watch dog also said it will leave a minimum number of staff at its headquarters and sub-committees for major cities and provinces, while sending more staff to smaller regional branches, starting early April, to better prepare for and operate the June 1 local elections.
The move to launch an investigation came after criticism over alleged irregularities in early voting procedures of the presidential election, including the NEC's methods of handling the ballots of COVID-19 patients and quarantined voters.
The main opposition conservative People Power Party (PPP) has ratcheted up pressure on NEC chief Noh Jeong-hee to resign over the claims of mishandling election affairs during the early voting period.
PPP lawmakers with the National Assembly Public Administration and Security Committee, including Rep. Suh Bum-soo, Lee Young, Choi Chun-sik and Park Wan-su, threatened to impeach Noh in accordance with the law, claiming the commissioner and the NEC violated the Constitution.
They claimed that NEC staffers collected ballots marked by COVID-19 patients and put them in the ballot boxes against the will of the voters and signatures of NEC officials were missing in some ballots, claiming all these are in contravention of the Constitution.
"What the NEC did during the early voting period is disastrous," Suh said, reading a prepared statement at the National Assembly, Monday.
Suh and other PPP lawmakers with the Assembly public administration committee criticized fellow lawmakers of the ruling Democratic Party of Korea (DPK) for being uncooperative in setting a committee meeting to hold the NEC commissioner accountable for the election blunders.
"We demanded that the minister of the interior and safety be present in the committee meeting and answer our questions, but this didn't happen because the DPK rejected our request to cooperate," said Rep. Suh.
On March 16, 15 members, including those with the NEC's sub-committees and regional election oversight committees across the nation, issued a joint statement to demand the resignation of NEC Chairwoman Noh Jeong-hee, as she holds the top responsibility for overseeing the election.
However, Noh has refused, saying she "will prepare unwaveringly for the June 1 local elections," in an email to NEC staffers the following day. On the same day, NEC Secretary General Kim Se-hwan resigned.
While some members of the ruling liberal Democratic Party of Korea (DPK) also said Noh should resign, other members, including lawmakers of the Assembly public administration committee, have opposed such calls.
On Saturday, DPK lawmakers with the public administration committee issued a joint statement, saying such calls for Noh's resignation would hamper the NEC operations with about 70 days left ahead of the June 1 local elections.
"In the current situation where the two standing members of the National Election Commission are vacant, calls for the resignation of Chairwoman Noh, if accepted, would paralyze the operations of the NEC," read the statement.
The NEC consists of nine standing members including the chairperson, the standing commissioner and seven commissioners. The posts for the standing commissioner and a commissioner are currently vacant.
In January, Cho Hai-ju, former standing commissioner of the NEC resigned over concerns of lack of political neutrality, despite President Moon Jae-in's earlier request for him to extend his term as a non-standing commissioner. Cho had served as a special adviser in Moon's presidential campaign in 2017.
The appointment of commissioner candidate Moon Sang-boo was also nullified in January with the DPK opposing it, citing his past PPP membership.
