Yu "Woo Won-sik and the Democratic Party create forced logic of 'voting obstruction' to coerce voting"

People Power Party Lawmakers Express Refusal to Vote
Waiting for Vote Count Outside Main Assembly Hall
Impeachment Resolution Still Lacks Required Quorum

On the 7th, the People Power Party strongly opposed Speaker Woo Won-sik's call to vote on the 'Impeachment Motion against President Yoon Seok-yeol,' calling it "vote coercion."

In a statement released that day, the People Power Party said, "Our party members have expressed their refusal to vote and are waiting for the counting outside the plenary hall," and countered, "Speaker Woo and the Democratic Party of Korea are forcing votes by fabricating the absurd argument of vote obstruction." They added, "We cannot help but condemn the abnormal actions of Speaker Woo and the Democratic Party, who blatantly deny the four fundamental principles of voting, including free voting, and hold others accountable."

People Power Party lawmakers are leaving the plenary hall immediately after voting on the special prosecution law for First Lady Kim Keon-hee at the National Assembly plenary session on the 7th. People Power Party lawmakers did not participate in the vote on the presidential impeachment motion. Photo by Kim Hyun-min

The People Power Party all left the plenary session after the vote on the 'Special Prosecutor Law for First Lady Kim Keon-hee.' This was decided as the party's official stance to block the passage of the presidential impeachment motion that would proceed afterward. As a result, the impeachment motion has failed to reach the required quorum of 200 votes. The likelihood of the vote being declared invalid has increased, and if invalidated, the impeachment motion will be automatically dismissed.

The People Power Party also strongly denied claims that they were detaining lawmakers under the pretext of a party meeting, calling all such allegations "false information." The party stated, "All posts on social media are clearly the spread of false information," and warned, "We will strictly hold legally responsible those who spread false information, including Democratic Party lawmaker Han Jun-ho." Earlier, Han had posted on his social media, "There is a report that People Power Party lawmakers are being locked in a conference room in the National Assembly main building, with their phones turned off and physical force used to prevent them from leaving."

Shin Dong-wook, the senior spokesperson for the People Power Party in the National Assembly, also told reporters that day, "The Democratic Party claims that gathering lawmakers is an act of vote obstruction, but we have never interfered with individual lawmakers' expression of will," and countered, "Even now, if anyone wants to go vote, they can do so, but the Democratic Party is spreading fake news to obstruct our party's free expression of will." Currently, only three People Power Party lawmakers?Kim Sang-wook, Kim Ye-ji, and Ahn Cheol-soo?have voted.

Speaker Woo plans to postpone the vote until 12:48 a.m. on the 8th to meet the required quorum.

This content was produced with the assistance of AI translation services.