South Korean protesters keep calling for re-run of election after ballot shortage

SEOUL, June 6 (Reuters) – Protesters outside a ballot-counting site in South Korea on Saturday rallied for a second day, demanding a re-run of local elections held earlier this week.

Around 10,000 citizens were estimated to have gathered at the SK Olympic Handball Stadium as of 5:30 p.m. (0830 GMT), where votes were counted from Wednesday’s elections to pick mayors and local government officials and assembly members, Yonhap News Agency reported, citing an unofficial police estimate.

Representatives at Seoul Metropolitan Police Agency were not immediately reached by Reuters to confirm the estimates.

The protests follow a ballot shortage that prevented some eligible voters from casting their ballots across the country, prompting the resignation of the head of the National Election Commission.

Fifty of 14,300 polling stations ran out of ballots and voting was temporarily suspended at 22 polling stations due to delays in receiving supplies, according to the election commission.

Seoul Mayor Oh Se-hoon said in a televised speech that the ballot shortage was intolerable and a violation of the right to vote. He demanded disbanding the election commission and an investigation by special prosecutors.

Many protesters, including conservative YouTubers, chanted slogans for an “election re-run,” sang the national anthem, and waved South Korean flags, live footage from local broadcaster YTN and Yonhap News showed.

Some of them sat in front of the stadium’s gates, to block officials of the National Election Commission from leaving.

The officials, who had been stuck in the stadium since Friday morning, eventually left the site on Saturday, Yonhap said.

The election commission did not immediately respond to a request on their departure.

(Reporting by Heejin Kim, Editing by Louise Heavens)