A "Jamsil ballot counting center blockade protest" demanding a rerun election and condemning the "ballot paper shortage incident" that occurred on the June 3 local elections main voting day entered its second day.
According to Yonhap News on the 6th, around 12:30 p.m. that day, about 2,000 citizens gathered around the Olympic Park Handball Gymnasium in Songpa District, Seoul, which serves as the counting center, based on an unofficial police estimate.
The size of the crowd reached about 7,000 around 12 a.m. that day, then fell to about 500 by 7 a.m. However, as the day moved into the afternoon, the crowd began to grow again.
Protesters gathered in the area are assembling at each of the arena's eight entrances, chanting slogans such as "Hold a rerun election," and keeping watch to prevent ballot boxes from being taken out.
Hwang Kyo-ahn of Liberty and Innovation, who claims election fraud, also joined the protest as a participant.
The protest in front of the counting center began at 10 a.m. the previous day, when the ballot boxes from Jamsil 7-dong—where the ballot paper shortage incident occurred amid a forced police intervention—were transported here.
It is estimated that 20 to 30 National Election Commission employees have remained inside the counting center from 3 p.m. the previous day, when counting ended, to the present. The ballot boxes at issue for the protesters are being kept as is inside the counting center.
In the afternoon the previous day, figures from the People Power Party appeared and proposed actions such as a "protest in front of the presidential office," but the protesters did not respond and appear likely to remain in front of the counting center.
Police have deployed about 400 members of a mobile unit to the scene.
Meanwhile, condemnation of the ballot paper shortage incident is taking place across Seoul.
On this day, the Korea Nation Rebuilding Movement Headquarters (Dae-guk-bon), led by Jun Kwang-hun of Sarang Jeil Church, held the "June 6 Gwanghwamun National Rally" in Gwanghwamun, Seoul. Rally participants held placards reading "Invalid election" and the like and chanted slogans such as "Hold a revote."
The Joint Forum of Student Governments of Korean Universities, which includes major Seoul schools such as Yonsei University, Korea University, Sogang University, Konkuk University, and Hankuk University of Foreign Studies, held a joint news conference that morning in front of Sinchon U-Plex.
In addition, a group of professors committed to freedom and justice plans to hold a rally that afternoon on Euljiro in Jung District, Seoul, calling for fair elections.