The National Election Commission conducted a public demonstration of early voting and counting procedures for the 6^th Nationwide Local Elections with the press, political party officials, prospective candidates, etc. in attendance on March 21.

According to the NEC, the public demonstration was held to ensure reliability and transparency in voting and counting management by providing detailed information on the entire voting/counting procedures of early voting to be held nationwide for the first time and to identify best ways to manage early voting and counting through a simulation.

The public demonstration was conducted at the early polling station/counting center of the same size as those established on actual Election Day furnished with 10 optical scan counters and was attended by approximately 300 persons including employees of Seoul-si Election Commission and others who participated as polling/counting staff.

The demonstration of early voting started with the introduction of early voting system, followed by guidance on how early voting is done and the demonstration of early voting and it also provided the participants with opportunities to test-experience early voting.

The demonstration of counting consisted of the opening of ballot boxes, the sorting out of ballots by candidate, counting, verifying tally sheets, the confirmation of the vote count by the Commissioners, the announcement of the result by Chairperson, the recording of the result, and the wrapping and sealing of ballot papers. The total of 170,000 ballot papers for demonstration was produced for the public demonstration.

Meanwhile, the NEC is planning to conduct a public demonstration of early voting and counting across the nation, starting with one to be held in Seoul on March 27. More demonstrations are also scheduled for March 28 in Busan and Incheon, for April 2 in Daegu/Gyeongbuk, Gwangju/Jeollanam-do, Daejeon/Sejong/Chungcheongnam-do, and for April 3 in Jeollabuk-do.