As a crowd protesting the shortage of ballots in the 9th nationwide local elections (the June 3 local elections) has blocked the Olympic Park Handball Gymnasium in Songpa-gu, Seoul, for a week, executives and staff of sports federations that use offices inside the venue appealed, saying they want to return to their workplace.
Employees of the sports federations housed in the Olympic Park Handball Gymnasium issued an appeal on the morning of the 11th, saying, we have not been able to take a single step into our office, where we have commuted every day, for seven days.
Nine sports federations, including fencing, mountaineering, and billiards, are housed in the Olympic Park Handball Gymnasium. They held banners reading, we want to return to our workplace and we respect the protest. But please respect our workplace, too.
The Olympic Park Handball Gymnasium was used as the Songpa-gu ballot counting center for the June 3 local elections. Following the ballot shortage, the crowd has continued a blockade, saying the ballots, ballot boxes, and other materials inside the Songpa-gu counting center must be preserved.
While the sports federation employees say they need to enter their offices inside the Handball Gymnasium to carry out at least essential tasks, the protesters are blocking them, citing the possibility of evidence being damaged. Access talks were held three times but collapsed.
Even as the sports federation employees issued their appeal that day, chants such as election fraud and a rerun of the vote continued nearby.