South Korean investigators raided the election commission on Thursday over indications its officials falsified vote turnout figures in June local elections, a spokesman said.

Dozens of polling stations experienced unprecedented ballot paper shortages on the June 3 nationwide vote, the first since President Lee Jae Myung took office last year.

The controversy sparked the resignation of National Election Commission (NEC) chief Roh Tae-ak and demonstrations demanding an election re-run. Lee ordered a “thorough” investigation.

In a broader investigation into the mishap, a joint team of police and prosecutors said on Thursday it was raiding the NEC’s offices over signs that officials falsified voter turnout figures.

“We have found indications that officials from the National Election Commission and the Gyeonggi Provincial Election Commission entered false voter turnout figures during the local elections,” the team’s spokesman said. The team is “also conducting searches and seizures of those involved”, he added.

Investigators are probing whether some officials manipulated the election statistics system to correct earlier errors in voter turnout figures on the day of the local elections. Under NEC rules, any correction to reported turnout figures must go through a formal approval process.

Instead, investigators suspect some officials adjusted figures across multiple polling stations to keep the totals consistent while waiting for actual turnout numbers to catch up, bypassing the required reporting process.

For example, if 1,000 voters were mistakenly entered instead of 100 at one polling station, investigators believe officials redistributed the excess 900 votes across other polling stations, expecting later voting to narrow the gap, according to Seoul’s Yonhap News Agency.

Analysts have said the NEC, a constitutional body with limited external oversight, has long faced gaps in internal discipline and review mechanisms.

According to data the NEC provided to a lawmaker’s office, the ballot paper shortage left at least 90 voters unable to cast their ballots on June 3. (AFP)