A special counsel investigating South Korea’s National Election Commission searched its headquarters and other locations for about 12 hours on Monday over allegations that senior commissioners received activity stipends without a sufficient legal basis.
The operation ran from 9 a.m. until around 9 p.m. and covered 18 departments, including the offices of the commission chair and secretary-general. Investigators also searched the Seoul metropolitan area residence of a former secretary-general. The team deployed 65 personnel, including four prosecutors and 25 digital forensics investigators.
The inquiry concerns 905.8 million won paid from 2020 through 2025 as monthly fixed allowances described as expenses for promoting fair elections. The recipients included the commission chair and nonstanding commissioners. Investigators suspect the payments continued after the Board of Audit and Inspection and the National Assembly raised concerns that they lacked an adequate legal foundation.
The special counsel is examining whether officials created documents that obscured those concerns or redirected money budgeted for other purposes. Suspected offenses cited by the investigation include causing losses to state funds, abuse of authority and preparation of false official documents. These remain allegations under investigation, and the evidence released so far does not establish individual responsibility.
Approval records and budget transfers come under scrutiny
Investigators said the amount paid in each year exceeded 100 million won, a threshold they cited in considering whether the state-loss provision could apply. That assessment does not by itself prove the offense. The legal outcome will depend on evidence about how the budget was approved, what officials understood about the payments and whether any documents or instructions were intended to sustain an unauthorized system.
The seized records and digital data will now be analyzed to reconstruct the commission’s internal reporting and approval process. Investigators are expected to examine who authorized the allowances, whether senior officials directed or coordinated their continued payment, and how funds assigned to other purposes may have been used. The inquiry places the commission’s handling of public money under scrutiny alongside the special counsel’s separate investigations into other alleged election-management failures.