Rep. Yoon Sang-hyun of the People Power Party, who is set to chair the Special Committee on a parliamentary inquiry into the "June 3 local election ballot shortage incident and other violations of citizens' suffrage, and election management reform," emphasized the need to make the National Election Commission chairperson a full-time position and to establish an audit committee within the commission. He also said the committee plans to address the controversy over the early voting system.
On the morning of the 22nd, Rep. Yoon held a forum at the National Assembly Members' Office Building under the theme "Deprivation of citizens' suffrage, how will K-conservatives take responsibility?" People Power Party lawmakers including Choi Hyung-du, Eom Tae-young, Bae Jun-young, Lee Sang-hwi, Ko Dong-jin, Cho Ji-yeon, and Kim Jang-kyom attended the forum.
After the forum, Yoon met with reporters and said, "If the secretary-general is to be directed, of course the election commission chair must be full-time, but now it is a part-time post and the chair shows up at the full commission meeting held once a month," adding, "In the end, the secretariat handles administrative work, and the election commission chair at the top is a kind of figurehead."
He continued, "Because the election commission is a constitutionally independent body and the Constitutional Court has ruled that it is not subject to audits by the Board of Audit and Inspection, job inspections cannot be conducted," adding, "A realistic alternative seems to be for the ruling and opposition parties to agree to establish an independent standing audit committee within the election commission and grant nomination rights to the parties."
There was also a notice that the parliamentary inquiry would address issues with the early voting system. Yoon said, "Right now, only Estonia has early voting, and Taiwan has neither early voting nor absentee or overseas voting," adding, "This time, we plan to create a preliminary investigation expert team within the special committee, and through experts we intend to look into problems with early voting as well."