Seoul: Discrepancies have been found between final voter figures and on-site tallies from the June 3 local elections, data acquired by a lawmaker showed Monday, amid a widening probe into irregularities surrounding the elections.

According to Yonhap News Agency, discrepancies were identified in 1,971 neighborhoods out of a total of 3,558 across the nation, based on data from the National Election Commission (NEC) submitted to Rep. Chung Choon-saeng of the minor Rebuilding Korea Party. Notably, discrepancies of at least 100 people were reported in 29 neighborhoods, including in Seoul, the southeastern port city of Busan, and Gyeonggi Province, which surrounds the capital.

In light of the latest discrepancies, investigators are exploring whether election officials manipulated data even after voting had concluded. Under the current system, polling station workers manually check the number of voters on election day, which is then reported to the election watchdog. Once voting ends, the final turnout is determined by the number of cast votes.

The NEC data highlighted specific incidents, such as a polling station in Anseong, just south of Seoul, where 2,105 voters were tallied by 6 p.m., when polls closed, compared to the final count of 1,494. Similarly, a polling station in Busan reported 7,137 voters at closing time, but the final tally stood at 7,922.

These revelations emerge as a joint prosecution-police team investigating ballot shortages on election day has discovered indications that NEC officials may have arbitrarily manipulated hourly voter turnout updates to cover up potential errors. Despite this, the NEC has maintained that its hourly turnout updates are tentative figures and that discrepancies with actual voter figures are inevitable.

During a hearing of a parliamentary special committee investigating the ballot shortages, the NEC insisted that such discrepancies do not affect the final voter count or the election results. The commission has proposed adopting a sample-based system to estimate voter turnout, acknowledging that human error cannot be ruled out under the current manual counting system from all 14,288 polling stations nationwide. It is also considering releasing the turnout rate every two hours instead of hourly, to allow election officials more time to verify the figures.