Protesters calling for South Korean President Yoon Suk Yeol’s impeachment began gathering near the parliament on Saturday (Dec 14), while pro-Yoon right-wing rallies at the centre of Seoul were due to start early in the afternoon, reported Reuters.
The protest is organised by 1,500 social organisations and around 200,000 protesters have gathered, reported local Chinese media quoting foreign press.
Opposition parties plan to hold an impeachment vote at the parliament at 4pm (3pm Malaysian local time) on Saturday.
Yoon’s conservative People Power Party (PPP) boycotted the first impeachment vote a week earlier, preventing a quorum.
Since then, PPP leader Han Dong-hoon has urged party members to vote for impeachment today, and at least seven PPP members have said they would vote to impeach.
The opposition parties control 192 of the 300 seats in the single-chamber parliament so they need at least eight PPP votes to reach the two-thirds threshold for impeachment.
The PPP floor leader said on Friday, however, that the party’s stance is still to oppose impeachment. PPP lawmakers reportedly met on Saturday morning to decide whether to change that position.
Yoon’s short-lived attempt to impose martial law on Dec 3 shocked the country, split his party and imperilled his presidency halfway through his term.
His move to impose military rule was rescinded barely six hours later after parliament defied troops and police to vote against the decree, but it plunged the country into a constitutional crisis and triggered widespread calls for him to step down for breaking the law.
Korean Gallop poll last Friday showed that the president’s support rate fell to 11%, the lowest since he took office in 2022.
