Seoul: A group of national sports federations entered their offices on Tuesday for the first time in three months after being locked out due to ongoing protests over ballot shortages during the June 3 local elections. Members of nine sports federations under the Korean Sport and Olympic Committee, including the Korea Handball Federation and the Korea Fencing Federation, made their way into their offices at the Olympic Handball Gymnasium in southern Seoul, which served as a ballot counting site for the local elections, under police escort.
According to Yonhap News Agency, the federations had been unable to access their offices as protesters, who claimed election fraud and demanded a rerun of the elections, blocked entrance to the arena starting June 5. Concerns of potential evidence tampering were raised as protesters refused entry to the sports bodies.
On Tuesday, around 50 protesters gathered at the stadium, but police had installed barricades to prevent any physical clashes, which the police confirmed did not occur. The number of protesters has sharply declined in recent weeks from the tens of thousands who gathered in the early days of the protests.
Police reported that a special counsel team investigating the ballot shortages, along with National Election Commission officials, entered the site before the sports groups to preserve evidence such as ballot papers. The Olympic committee stated that cooperation was requested from the Seoul Metropolitan Police Agency to enter the stadium and retrieve their belongings, a move deemed essential for preparing for the Aichi-Nagoya Asian Games in Japan, commencing on September 19.
Despite previous unsuccessful attempts to enter the stadium due to non-cooperation from protesters, sports officials successfully moved boxes of belongings, including computers and documents, out of their offices on Tuesday. The items were loaded onto trucks waiting outside the stadium. Some protesters expressed dissatisfaction with the removal of these items, chanting slogans for a rerun of the elections.
For the operation, police deployed approximately 1,830 personnel, committing to take strict actions against any illegal activities, such as preventing sports officials from accessing their offices.