The election watchdog confirmed that the ballot papers an opposition lawmaker claimed were “proof of vote rigging” were indeed leaked from its Guri branch, and requested the prosecution to investigate.

Rep. Min Kyung-wook of the United Future Party disclosed the unmarked ballot papers for proportional representation on Monday, saying the fact that they were in his hands was evidence of manipulation, since in early voting, ballot papers are printed each time a voter arrives at the polling station.

The ballot papers, however, were for use on the actual election day, not for early voting as Min claimed.

The National Election Commission said on Tuesday that six of the ballot papers left over from the parliamentary election on April 15 at a polling station in Sutaek 2-dong, Guri, were lost, and their serial numbers matched those of the ballot papers Min had.

The NEC said in a press release that its Guri branch had checked how many unused ballot papers remained, as the number of voters did not match the number of ballot papers issued.

“A bag of election-related documents including the left over ballot papers was temporarily kept at the Guri gymnasium where the ballots were counted, and we presume that someone must have taken some of the ballot papers,” the election watchdog said, adding that stealing the ballot papers was a serious crime.

Min “must explain how he obtained the ballot papers, and take responsibility for it,” the NEC said.

Min, who lost in the election last month, also claimed that a bag of shredded ballot papers was found in front of a post office in Gyeonggi Province.

The NEC said it could not verify what he said as he did not specify his source, and did not know if they were actual ballot papers.

About Min’s claim that an early voting ballot paper of Seoul’s Seocho-gu was found during ballot counting in Bundang-gu, Gyeonggi Province, the NEC said it did happen.

“There can be mistakes by voters, or the election or ballot-counting clerks, but that doesn’t mean there was manipulation or vote-rigging … One should not try to sway public opinion by highlighting only a fragment due to lack of understanding on the overall election procedure,” the election watchdog said.

The NEC said it asked the prosecution to investigate whatever remains unconfirmed, and hoped that the court can uncover the truth regarding the election lawsuits filed.

Sixteen lawsuits calling for a nullification of election results and 17 requests for preservation of related evidence had been filed as of Tuesday.

By Kim So-hyun (sophie@heraldcorp.com)