South Korea parliament voted to impeach scandal-hit President Park Geun-Hye.
The lawmakers of South Korea passed an impeachment motion against South Korean President Park Geun-Hye over a corruption scandal that has paralyzed her administration and triggered massive street protests in the previous months.
The decision made on Friday means stripping away Park’s sweeping executive powers in the country.
The National Assembly motion was passed by 234 votes against 56 who opposed.
Because of this, it transferred Park’s authority to the prime minister, pending a decision by the Constitutional Court on whether to ratify the decision and permanently remove the president from office.
A ruling could take up to half-year or six months.
In this whole duration, Park will remain in the presidential Blue House but the Seoul faces an extended period of political uncertainty and policy paralysis.
The motion was adopted by 234 votes against 56, easily securing the required two-thirds majority in the chamber composed of 300 members.
“I declare that the bill to impeach President Park Geun-Hye has just been approved,” announced speaker Chung Se-Kyun.
“Whether you support or oppose it, all lawmakers and South Korean people who are watching this grave situation unfold must feel so miserable and heavy at heart,” he added.
“I deeply wish that such tragedy in our constitutional history will not be repeated ever again.”
The result of the parliament’s decision marked a startling fall from grace for a president who had run for the Blue House as an incorruptible candidate, declaring herself beholden to nobody and “married to the nation”.
Park served South Korea for less than four years but, she now faces the prospect of going down in history as the first democratically-elected South Korean president to be kicked out of office.
The impeachment motion was after the protests in streets which had accused Park of constitutional and criminal violations ranging from a failure to protect people’s lives to bribery and abuse of power, where they demand for the president to step down.