National Assembly Speaker chooses majority approval of registered members as quorum

[Anchor]

Today (12.27), the impeachment motion was passed based on the decision of National Assembly Speaker Woo Won-shik to follow the Prime Minister's standard, which requires a majority vote.

The People Power Party is strongly opposing this, and it seems that the controversy will continue until the Constitutional Court's decision is made.

Reporter Moon Ye-seul has the story.

[Report]

[“Null and void! Abuse of power!”]

Members of the People Power Party are protesting fiercely in front of the speaker's podium.

This is because Speaker Woo Won-shik announced that the quorum for the impeachment motion against Acting President Han will follow the Prime Minister's standard, requiring a majority of the total members, or 151 votes in favor.

[Woo Won-shik/National Assembly Speaker: “The subject of this impeachment motion is the Prime Minister, who exercises the authority of the President according to the Constitution.”]

The impeachment motion was passed with all 192 participating votes in favor.

Excluding Democratic Party member Kim Moon-soo, who was absent due to overseas travel, 191 members of the opposition bloc and People Power Party member Cho Kyoung-tae participated and voted in favor.

The People Power Party, which has argued that the impeachment motion should be decided with more than 200 votes following the President's standard, did not participate in the vote, except for lawmaker Cho.

[Kwon Seong-dong/Acting Leader of the People Power Party: “Since it does not reach two-thirds, I declare it null and void and that the vote is invalid.”]

Discussions are ongoing in academia regarding whether the quorum for the impeachment motion is 151 or 200 votes.

[Lim Ji-bong/Professor at Sogang University Law School: “The majority opinion in our academic community is that it is based on the status of the Prime Minister, not the role of acting president.”]

However, there are also opinions that it is difficult to set a standard based on one side, as both the actions as Acting President and as Prime Minister are included in the impeachment motion.

Although the impeachment motion was passed with 151 votes, the controversy is expected to continue until the Constitutional Court reaches a final conclusion following the request for a dispute over authority.

This is KBS News, Moon Ye-seul.