South Korea: Motion to Dismiss President Yoon Failes in Parliament
Lee Jae-myung (front C), head of the main opposition Democratic Party, and lawmakers attend a press conference after South Korean President Yoon Suk Yeol survived an impeachment motion at the National Assembly in Seoul, South Korea, 07 December 2024. Photo: EFE/EPA/JEON HEON-KYUN
December 7, 2024 Hour: 2:22 pm
Parliament was due to vote on the long-awaited motion of censure against President Yoon Suk-yeol, following the controversial declaration of martial law by the President this week, but the This frustrated the quorum required for voting.
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The impeachment initiative failed today because only three of the deputies from the Yoon formation, the conservative People’s Power Party (PPP), voted in parliament, insufficient number since the votes of eight seats from the governing bloc were needed to achieve the majority required for the ineligibility.
Around 159,000 people gathered today chanting “Remove the president,” and for hours, in temperatures near freezing, they protested against the president, who unexpectedly declared martial law last Tuesday, claiming that the opposition was acting as a “pro-North Korean entity” trying to undermine the state.
Only five participants were needed in the National Assembly to complete the quorum of 200 deputies, necessary for the validity of impeachment when all the officialdom except the deputies Ahn Cheol-soo, Kim Ye-ji and Kim Sang-wook, torpedoed the motion as they withdrew from the parliamentary precinct.
The two-thirds quorum, constituted by 200 of 300 parliamentarians, was expected to be achieved with 192 registered opposition members, including the main political force behind the censure motion, the Democratic Party, and 108 members of the ruling Party of People’s Power.
National Assembly Speaker Woo Won-sik delayed the end of the vote by saying that he would wait for the ruling party’s legislators to return to the plenary chamber to vote, which never happened and caused the impeachment trial to fail.
After successfully boycotting the initiative to disqualify Yoon, PPP leader Han Dong-hoon said the party “will press for an orderly exit of the president with a view to minimizing chaos,” and reiterated that the declaration of martial law was “unconstitutional”.
Autor: ACJ
Fuente: France 24 // The Chosun Daily // EFE