South Korea Votes to Impeach President Park Geun-Hye

President Barack Obama meets with South Korean President Park Geun-hye, Friday, Oct. 16, 2015, in the Oval Office of the White House in Washington. (AP Photo)

Lawmakers in South Korea voted to impeach President Park Geun-hye on Friday over an ongoing corruption scandal, marking the end for the nation’s first female leader. Park, who was once dubbed the “Queen of Elections” for pulling off wins for her party, will soon be stripped of her post and Prime Minister Hwang Kyo-ahn will assume her role officially when documents are delivered to the presidential Blue House later Friday.

Hwang will remain in the leadership post until the country’s Constitutional Court rules on whether Park must permanently step down. National Assembly speaker Chung Sye-kyun said the impeachment bill passed by a vote of 236 for and 56 opposed, far more than the two-thirds needed to oust a president in the country. Nine (9) invalid votes and abstentions were also tallied, but the opposition succeeded in recruiting help from members of Park’s party to get the votes.

Prosecutors argued that Park was colluding with a longtime friend to extort money from companies in exchange for influence over government decisions. Amid the controversy, the once popular leader saw her approval ratings tank to 4%, the lowest among South Korean leaders since it began as a democracy in the late 1980s.

Even her political base, which was made up primary of older conservatives, began to abandon her. An recent poll released Thursday showed about 78% supported Park’s impeachment, which hadn’t been done since 2004 when they accused late liberal President Roh Moo-hyun of incompetence and election law violations. The court restored Roh’s powers about two months later, ruling that his wrongdoings weren’t serious enough to justify his unseating.

Park’s single, five-year term was originally set to end Feb. 24, 2018.