People’s Party seeks to pass impeachment motion Monday

The third-biggest People’s Party urged the National Assembly to propose an impeachment motion against President Park Geun-hye on Thursday, suggesting that the motion should be put to a vote no later than Monday.

The decision came hours after the opposition coalition failed to reach consensus on when to submit the motion to the floor, which effectively killed chances of the impeachment ballot taking place at the parliament’s plenary session Friday.

While Democratic Party lawmakers insisted that the measure should be proposed as scheduled Thursday, The People’s Party leadership countered that the motion is unlikely to clear the legislative hurdle without support from the ruling Saenuri Party’s lawmakers.

“Our plan would give Saenuri lawmakers time to think about changing the plan,” said People’s Party interim leader Rep. Park Jie-won, adding that the centrist party would continue to work on securing enough votes from Saenuri lawmakers to pass the motion. 

Earlier in the day, the People’s Party refused to join the Democratic Party of Korea and minor justice Party in proposing the motion Thursday. Without the support of either Saenuri Party lawmakers or the 38 lawmakers of the People’s Party, the measure can neither be proposed nor passed. 

Democratic Party and Justice Party said that they would consider the proposal. 

“I think it is good news that the opposition parties can work together to impeach Park as soon as possible,” said Democratic Party leader Rep. Choo Mi-ae.

By Yeo Jun-suk(jasonyeo@heraldcorp.com)