South Korean President Yoon Suk Yeol has been impeached by the country’s National Assembly over his short-lived attempt to impose martial law, a move that plunged the country in political turmoil halfway through his presidency.
The unicameral National Assembly voted 204-85 on Saturday to impeach Yoon, the second such vote in eight days. Three members abstained and 8 votes were declared invalid.
The vote was done by secret ballot, with two-thirds of the votes required for impeachment. All 300 members of the assembly cast their ballot.
What happens next?
With his impeachment, Yoon is automatically suspended from office while South Korea’s Constitutional Court deliberates his fate.
Prime Minister Han Duck-soo is taking over as the interim president.
The Constitutional Court would then have 180 days to rule on Yoon’s future. If it backs his removal, Yoon would become the second president in South Korean history to be successfully impeached.
Park Geun-hye, another conservative president, was impeached in December 2016 and was removed from office in March 2017.
People Power Party’s stance shifts
Yoon’s conservative People Power Party (PPP) boycotted the first impeachment vote a week earlier, preventing a quorum.
Since then, PPP leader Han Dong-hoon has urged the party to participate in the voting process, although the official stance of the party rejects Yoon’s impeachment.
Ahead of the vote, at least seven PPP members said they would vote to impeach Yoon, meaning only one more vote was required to reach the 200 necessary for impeachment.
‘Weight of history’
An estimated 200,000 people took to the streets in the capital Seoul in rival rallies for and against Yoon hours ahead of the impeachment vote.
At the opening of the National Assembly meeting, Speaker Woo Won-shik declared that “the weight of history” is in the hands of the assembly members.
Park Chan-dae, the floor leader of the main opposition Democratic Party of Korea, declared that “Yoon is the ringleader of the insurrection.”
He added that the impeachment vote was the “only way” to “safeguard the Constitution” of South Korea.
Yoon has remained unapologetic and defiant as the fallout from his martial law declaration deepened and an investigation into his inner circle widened.
His approval rating – never very high – has plummeted to 11 percent, according to a Gallup Korea poll released Friday. An earlier survey conducted in November showed him having an approval rating of 19 percent just ahead of the martial law declaration.
The same poll showed that 75 percent now support his impeachment.
Source: Al-Jazeera
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