Court personnel leave a senior citizens’ center at Woosung Apartments in Jamsil, Seoul, after completing an on-site inspection on June 10 under a partially granted evidence-preservation request filed by the Reform Party. Photo by Asia Today
June 25 (Asia Today) — A South Korean court has again rejected a request to preserve ballots, ballot boxes and other election materials kept at a counting center in Seoul’s Songpa District.
The First Civil Division of the Seoul Eastern District Court, led by Presiding Judge Joo Jin-am, dismissed an appeal Tuesday filed by the Freedom and Innovation party against the chair of the Songpa District Election Commission.
The materials were stored at a counting center inside the Olympic Park Handball Gymnasium.
The court rejected the party’s initial evidence-preservation request on June 12, prompting the party to appeal.
Freedom and Innovation claimed that ballot-paper shortages, the transportation of ballot boxes and other alleged irregularities during the June 3 nationwide local elections could have affected the voting and counting results.
The party sought court preservation of ballots, ballot boxes and related materials for possible use in future litigation.
The court, however, found that the application failed to satisfy legal requirements including relevance and necessity.
Judges said there was no sufficient connection between the ballot shortages and the requested preservation of ballots and ballot boxes from polling places where voting had been completed normally.
The court also determined that obtaining the materials would not help establish the disputed issues in an underlying lawsuit.
It said a separate preservation order was unnecessary because election law already requires the materials to be retained.
— Reported by Asia Today; translated by UPI
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