As lawmakers gathered at the National Assembly in the early hours of Thursday to report the impeachment motion against President Yoon Suk Yeol, the Democratic Party’s Kim Seung-won pleaded for the ruling party lawmakers to “think of the people” and support the motion.
188 lawmakers out of 300 that form the National Assembly attended the plenary session, where they reported the motion to initiate impeachment process.
Referring to media reports that lawmakers from the ruling party did not attend the plenary session in protest against the motion, Kim said “we’ve all sworn in front of the people to protect the constitution.”
“Think of the mindset you had when you sworn into office, that you would work for the people,” Kim said in the televised plenary session to the legislature. For the motion to pass, two-third of the legislature need to approve it.
The Democratic Party, minor opposition parties and independents have a combined 192 seats, meaning they would need the support of at least eight members of Yoon’s People Power Party to pass the motion.
The motion can be put to vote as early as Friday.
Kim thanked the people for confronting the military and helping lawmakers get into the National Assembly building on Tuesday, when police and military blocked the gates following Yoon’s announcement of martial law.
Seiler also said if Yoon had been attempting to seize power, he would not have rescinded the order after the parliament vote took place.
“There were people who had said this could’ve been one of Yoon’s options for the past few months given the deadlock in the parliament and the National Assembly,” Seiler said.
“He probably expected it to go much easier. He may have thought that he could’ve dissolved the National Assembly before it had time to vote on the … martial law,” he said. “… But as soon as that vote on the martial law took place, President Yoon rescinded the order.”
Leave a Reply