Secret ballot cast for impeachment motion
Bereaved family members of the Sewol ferry disaster victims wipe away tears of joy after the National Assembly voted to impeach President Park Geun-hye in Seoul Friday. The family members were in the main hall. Park’s alleged dereliction of duty during the ferry disaster is one of the reasons for the impeachment. / Yonhap
By Jun Ji-hye
Lawmakers conducted a secret voting using ballot papers for the motion to impeach scandal-ridden President Park Geun-hye, Friday.
This marked the second presidential impeachment vote in the country after the National Assembly conducted one to impeach former President Roh Moo-hyun in 2004.
Secret voting requires lawmakers to handwrite whether they were for or against on the ballot papers without revealing their names. Then, it takes about an hour for the result to be revealed. This kind of voting is designed to guarantee lawmakers’ freedom of expression, according to parliamentary officials.
The National Assembly usually uses an electronic voting system requiring lawmakers to just push a button for voting for the majority of pending issues. After electronic voting, the result is immediately displayed on an electronic board to show votes for and against, and who voted which way. This is to hold lawmakers responsible for their decisions.
But some critical issues require secret voting using ballot papers ― they are appointments, dismissals and presidential impeachment issues, and passage of bills vetoed by the president.
In secret voting, lawmakers should write “ga” (yes) or “bu” (no) either in Korean or Chinese. Anything else is deemed to invalidate the vote.
Officials said that in previous cases, some entered O or X on the paper or misspelled a word, and more absurdly, some wrote their own names, which also nullified the vote.
“In the majority of cases, lawmakers make their votes invalid by mistake, but they sometimes do it on purpose as a different form of abstention,” an official said.
On March 12, 2004, Roh’s impeachment motion was approved at the Assembly ― among a total of 271 sitting lawmakers at the time, 195 participated in the vote, and 193 voted for the motion.
This led to the suspension of President Roh from his official duties, and then the Prime Minister Goh Kun led the nation as acting head of state. Sixty-three days later, Roh was restored to power as president as the Constitutional Court overturned his impeachment.