South Korea’s parliament on Saturday failed to pass President Yoon Suk-yeol’s impeachment motion as most of the ruling People Power Party lawmakers refused to vote on it.
After voting against a bill to investigate scandals involving Yoon’s wife, most of the 108 ruling party lawmakers left the parliament hall, Xinhua news agency reported.
One ruling party lawmaker remained at the hall and two came back after leaving.
Of 300 National Assembly lawmakers, 198 voted for the bill on the special prosecutor investigation of the first lady, with 102 against it. At least two-thirds of the lawmakers need to vote yes to pass the bill in revote.
Lawmakers of the opposition parties, including the main liberal Democratic Party, named the ruling party lawmakers one by one in unison, calling on them to come back and cast ballots.
More than 200 lawmakers are required to vote yes to pass the impeachment motion.
National Assembly Speaker Woo Won-shik ended the voting process about three hours after waiting for the ruling party lawmakers, announcing the impeachment motion was scrapped due to lack of quorum.
Outside the parliament building, hundreds of thousands of civilians held a candlelight rally to demand vote for Yoon’s impeachment.
The Democratic Party and five other minor parties submitted the impeachment motion over the President’s martial law declaration on Wednesday.
Yoon declared an emergency martial law Tuesday night before repealing it early Wednesday as the parliament voted against it. The revocation was approved at a Cabinet meeting.