A South Korean court has decided to preserve certain evidence related to the ballot shortage incident during the June 3 local elections in the Jamsil area.
On June 9, the Seoul Eastern District Court's Chief Judge Kim Ji-yeon partially accepted a request for evidence preservation filed by Kim Jeong-cheol, a senior member of the Reform Party and a candidate for Seoul mayor.
The court designated for preservation a box containing 1,900 printed ballots and packaging materials stored at the Jamsil 7-dong Second polling station in Songpa District. Additionally, CCTV footage capturing the interior of the polling stations and the storage of ballot boxes from ten polling places affected by the ballot shortage will also be preserved.
Records from group chats, messaging apps, and text messages used by election commission staff are also included in the preservation order.
However, the court denied the request to preserve the actual ballots used at the polling stations where the shortage occurred, as well as the ballot boxes that were moved to the Seoul Olympic Park Handball Stadium for counting.
Judge Kim is scheduled to conduct an on-site inspection at the Jamsil 7-dong Second polling station on June 10 at 3 PM. The evidence collected during this inspection is expected to undergo a sealing process before being stored by the court.
This evidence preservation request was made by Kim Jeong-cheol on June 8, ahead of a planned lawsuit to invalidate the Seoul mayoral election.
Earlier, Kim announced on social media on June 8, "Ballots, records, internal communications from the election commission, and videos will disappear over time," and stated that he would submit the 'evidence preservation request' to the Seoul Eastern District Court alongside Cheon Ha-ram, the party's floor leader.
* This article has been translated by AI.
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