For a second consecutive day, demonstrators gathered outside a vote-counting facility in South Korea on Saturday, calling for a complete re-run of the local elections held earlier this week.
According to unofficial police estimates cited by the Yonhap News Agency, approximately 10,000 people had congregated at the SK Olympic Handball Stadium by 5:30 p.m. local time. The site served as the counting center for the Wednesday elections used to select assembly members, local government officials, and mayors.
Reuters was unable to reach representatives at the Seoul Metropolitan Police Agency for immediate confirmation of these figures.
The unrest stems from a widespread shortage of ballots that disenfranchised eligible voters across the nation, a failure that led to the resignation of the National Election Commission’s head.
The election commission reported that 50 out of 14,300 polling stations ran out of ballots, while 22 stations were forced to suspend voting temporarily due to logistical delays in supply deliveries.
In a televised address, Seoul Mayor Oh Se-hoon described the shortage as an intolerable violation of fundamental voting rights. He further called for the dissolution of the election commission and the appointment of special prosecutors to investigate the matter.
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