SEOUL, July 30 (Reuters) - South Korea's parliament passed a bill on Thursday to appoint a special prosecutor to investigate irregularities at June 3 local elections, which raised questions about the competence of the National Election Commission and whether fraud was committed.
Voters at some polling stations, including in a district in Seoul, were made to wait for hours until ballot papers were delivered after they ran out. Dozens were found to have been unable to cast votes.
The special prosecutor, who will be nominated by a bipartisan committee, will be appointed by the president and form a team of prosecutors and investigators to conduct a probe for 90 days. The team can bring indictments.
The parliament also passed a bill to extend a parliamentary inquiry into the National Election Commission by 30 days over the ballot paper shortages.
The ruling and opposition parties agreed the extension to allow preparations for a recount of ballots from polling boxes at a vote-counting station in Seoul's Olympic Park.
A team of police and prosecutors has been conducting an investigation, which has yet to produce concrete progress.
The shortages of ballot papers drew an outcry from the public and from politicians on both sides of the aisle, including President Lee Jae Myung, who said the incident was a serious blow to the country's reputation as a model democracy.
