Parliamentary committee inspects vote counting venue amid ongoing protests
South Korean parliamentary investigators on Thursday entered a vote counting venue in Seoul that had been blockaded by protesters for nearly a month, according to Yonhap News. The on-site inspection came 27 days after demonstrators demanding a rerun of the June 3 local elections began blocking the Olympic Park Handball Gymnasium in southern Seoul on June 5, two days after ballot shortages temporarily suspended voting at polling stations across the nation.
Police cleared protesters from the entrance to the stadium, which served as a ballot counting site on election day, to allow committee members access. The inspection lasted around 40 minutes, Yonhap reported.
The committee members earlier visited the Songpa District Election Commission, where they were briefed by election officials on how ballot papers were managed on election day.
Scuffles were witnessed outside the stadium early Thursday, with some protesters shoving one another and tearing American flags carried by other participants. Some protesters continued to blockade the stadium in opposition to the inspection, saying they would allow entry only to special counsel investigators or those with a warrant.
Police separated the protesters to prevent further clashes and deployed some 2,000 personnel to the site. A team of emergency responders was dispatched to the scene after a protester reportedly collapsed; the cause of the collapse was not immediately known.
The protests, which began June 5, claim election fraud and demand a rerun of the elections. The ballot shortages that triggered the protests temporarily suspended voting at polling stations across the nation on election day.