Constitutional Court Dismisses Ruling on Quorum for Impeachment of Acting President in Ruling Dispute with Ruling Party

The Constitutional Court dismissed on the 10th the jurisdictional dispute petition filed by the People Power Party lawmakers against National Assembly Speaker Woo Won-sik, who opposed the impeachment vote of Acting President and Prime Minister Han Deok-soo.

Yonhap News

On the same day, at the Constitutional Court's Grand Bench in Jongno-gu, Seoul, the court announced, "By a 6 to 2 decision of the justices, it was determined that the Speaker's act of declaring the passage of the Prime Minister's impeachment motion and delivering a copy of the impeachment resolution to Han Deok-soo does not recognize the possibility of infringing on the petitioners' rights to deliberate and vote."

Among the eight justices, six (Moon Hyung-bae, Lee Mi-sun, Kim Hyung-doo, Kim Bok-hyung, Jeong Gye-seon) expressed opinions to dismiss the case. The court stated, "The petitioners merely argue that the National Assembly's impeachment request, which was made by passing the impeachment motion based on the 'general quorum (151 seats),' is invalid, but this cannot serve as grounds to recognize the possibility of infringement on the right to deliberate and vote on the impeachment motion."

However, two justices (Jeong Hyeong-sik and Jo Han-jang) dissented, stating, "As the Speaker and presider of the plenary session, the respondent had a constitutional duty to ensure that members of the National Assembly were given sufficient opportunities to submit opinions, ask questions, and engage in debate regarding the quorum during the voting process on the impeachment motion, and to seek ways to minimize conflicts and disputes through this."

Earlier, 108 lawmakers from the People Power Party filed a jurisdictional dispute petition, claiming that Speaker Woo infringed on their voting rights by putting the impeachment motion against the Acting President to a vote based on the 151-seat quorum on December 27 of last year.