Police Investigate Break-In and Identify Woman in Ballot-Counting Center Standoff
South Korean authorities are investigating a reported break-in at a ballot-counting center in Seoul, while also identifying a woman who staged a solo blockade at the same venue, according to sports officials and sources. The incidents are tied to weeks-long protests demanding a rerun of the June 3 local elections.
The Korea Sports Industry Development (KSID), which manages the Olympic Park Handball Gymnasium that was used as a vote-counting center, reported that three unidentified individuals broke into the facility on June 7 after damaging a basement door lock. The KSID filed a complaint with police and provided surveillance footage showing the individuals entering the gym and filming the interior. After filing the complaint, the KSID welded the basement door shut on June 11. Video of the welding spread online, sparking unverified conspiracy theories that authorities intended to trap protesters inside the gym and start a fire or crowd crush.
Protesters were demonstrating outside the gymnasium for the 15th consecutive day on Friday, June 19, after ballot shortages on election day disrupted voting at 26 polling stations. They have blockaded the site to prevent the removal of ballot boxes that were brought there for counting.
Separately, police have identified a woman, said to be in her 30s, who staged a solo blockade of the same gym on June 16, and issued a summons for her to appear for questioning, according to sources. On that day, the woman stood outside a door to the SK Olympic Handball Gymnasium in southern Seoul, which had been used as a ballot counting center, to prevent anyone from going inside amid an ongoing standoff between protesters demanding a rerun of the elections and sports organization officials trying to enter the gym to access their offices.
The protests, which began after shortages of ballot papers were reported at multiple polling stations on election day, are now on their 20th consecutive day. Some voters reportedly turned back without casting their ballots due to the shortages.
To end the standoff, lawmakers of the main opposition People Power Party had negotiated a deal with the protesters to let the sports officials inside, but the agreement fell through after the woman blocked the door and demanded the preservation of ballots and ballot boxes that remain in the gym. Police reportedly plan to question the woman on suspicions of obstruction of business.
Within far-right political groups, the woman has earned the nickname "Oldarc," short for "Olympic Park Jeanne d'Arc."