South Korean President Yoon Suk-yeol has been impeached after a vote by lawmakers on Saturday passed with 204 votes in favour and 85 against, with three abstentions and eight invalid ballots.
It was the second impeachment vote in the space of a week, with President Yoon surviving the first vote in the National Assemby last Saturday. The majority of People Party lawmakers, the country’s ruling party, had boycotted the motion which meant it could not reach the minimum 200 votes out of 300 in order to pass. Today, all lawmakers were present for the vote.
His presidential powers and duties will now be suspended until the Constitutional Court decides within 180 days whether to dismiss him as president or restore his powers. If he is thrown out of office, a national election to choose his successor must be held within 60 days.
Public protests against the conservative Yoon had been intensifying, with tens of thousands of people pouring onto the streets of capital Seoul every night since his short-lived martial law declaration on the evening of 3 December.
The presiden’t imposition of martial law, which lasted a mere six hours, was the first in more than four decades in South Korea. The country has since found itself in political turmoil, with its financial markets rattled.
After his declaration, Yoon sent hundreds of troops and police officers to the parliament to try to impede a vote on the decree. Parliament was able to go ahead with a unanimous vote to overturn it, while no major violence occured.
Last week’s impeachment motion alleged that Yoon had “committed rebellion that hurts peace on the Republic of Korea by staging a series of riots.” It said Yoon’s mobilisation of military and police forces threatened the National Assembly and the public and that his martial law decree was aimed at disturbing the Constitution.
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Opposition parties and many experts have cited a law clause that categorises as rebellion the staging of a riot against established state authorities to undermine the constitution.
Yoon rejected the accusations in a fiery speech on Thursday, referring to his martial law order as an act of governance and claiming it was an attempt to warn the mainl liberal opposition Democratic Party, which he called “a monster” and “anti-state forces” that had used its legislative power to impeach top officials and undermine the government’s budget bill.
He has in the mean time been been banned from leaving South Korea, as authorities investigate whether he and others involved in the martial law declaration committed rebellion, abuse of power and other crimes. If convicted, the president could face life imprisonment or even the death penalty.
South Korea’s defence minister, police chief and the head of Seoul’s metropolitan police agency have all been arrested over their roles in the martial law case. Other senior military and government officials also face investigations.
