In a parliamentary hearing held at the government complex in Gwacheon, Gyeonggi Province, the commission, which takes care of the country's elections, said moving the ballots stored at an indoor handball gymnasium in Olympic Park in Songpa is needed to ease public concerns and suspicions and also restore the gymnasium to normal use.
The gymnasium served as a ballot-counting site on June 3 election day, but ballot boxes have been stuck there with some of them still unopened as protesters blocked the entry to the site after ballot shortages suspended or delayed voting at polling stations in several districts in southern Seoul.
It suggested that it could consider verifying the ballots by checking their storage conditions and other election-related materials before transporting them, to confirm that they are the same ballots used on election day, amid suspicions of illegal voting.
The commission estimated that verifying around 2.47 million ballots stored there would require about 440 people and take about nine hours, with an additional four hours needed to set up and remove equipment for the verification. The process would cost 50 million won (about US$36,000), with observers participating and media coverage allowed to ensure transparency.
Meanwhile, a parliamentary committee conducting a probe into the incident plans to hold hearings next week before announcing its initial findings.
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