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The South Korean parliament, on Friday, voted in favor of the impeachment of President Park Geun-hye. The country’s Constitutional Court will have 180 days to decide whether it will uphold or reject the impeachment.

The parliament passed the bill following more than six weeks of protests. The motion to impeach President Park received the necessary two-third approval from South Korea’s legislators. For the final approval, the impeachment motion is required to be upheld by the constitutional court. The constitutional court will have as long as 180 days to rule on it, and the two-thirds of the nine-judge court must endorse it to formally impeach the scandal-hit president 234 legislators voted in favor of the impeachment, 56 voted against, 2 abstained, and 2 votes were declared invalid. President Park Geun-hye will be stripped of her presidential powers immediately after receiving a written notice, about 3 – 4 hours after the vote. Prime Minister Hwang Kyo-ahn is will temporarily assume presidential powers until the Constitutional Court has made a final decision after no more than 180 days. President Park Geun-hye has been accused of colluding with her close friend and confidente Choi Soon-sil who is at the center of a corruption scandal. On November 20, South Korea’s prosecutors charged Choi and two former officials of the presidential administration with corruption, extortion and abuse of powers.

Choi was among others accused of forcing a number of companies to donate tens of millions of dollars to the foundations she controlled. Although this influence has not been proven, investigators believe the president was aware of these ‘donations.’ Earlier this week Park, who had made three public apologies, said she would calmly accept an impeachment. A dignified gesture against the backdrop of an increasingly hateful rhetoric from the political left that compared Park with her father, who has widely been denounced as “the last South Korean military dictator”.

The Parliament of South Korea, on Monday, adopted a bill on appointing an independent prosecutor who will investigate the scandal involving President park Geun-hye and her longtime confidante suspected of meddling in government affairs behind the scenes, as well as nepotism.

It is the first time in the history of the Republic of Korea (South Korea) that a president will have to face a special prosecutor. Both the ruling Saenuri Party and the main opposition Minjoo Party as well as the People’s Party agreed to the bill. The ruling Saenuri Party will be excluded from proposing candidates for the special prosecutor.

The parliament’s decision to establish the special prosecutor came after three consecutive weekends with mass protests calling for her resignation began swelling. 60 percent of polled people are calling for the impeachment of Park Geun-hye while her approval ratings have dropped to a record-low 5 percent.

South Korean prosecutors on Monday sought to arrest impeached president Park Geun-hye over a corruption scandal embroiling Park and her longtime confidante Choi Soon-sil. 

The Special Investigation Headquarters of the Seoul Central District Prosecutors’ Office, tasked with the probe into the scandal, stated that concerns remained about an attempt to destroy evidence as Park denied most criminal charges despite substantial evidence against her. Park was removed from office on March 10 when the Constitutional Court upheld a motion to impeach her. The first female South Korean leader became the first South Korean president ousted by impeachment. State prosecutors, who took over the investigation from special prosecutors this month, summoned the Park last week for questioning. However, Park denied the criminal charges that were brought against her. Park recognized and apologized for misjudgments. The arrest warrant was formally delivered to a Seoul court, which would review the evidence and decide whether the warrant can be issued. The decision would be made late Wednesday or early Thursday. If issued, Park would become the third South Korean ex-leader to be taken into custody. Two former military leaders were put behind bars in 1995 for charges of treason and corruption.

State and special prosecutors levied a total of 13 charges against Park, including bribery, abuse of power and the leakage of state secrets. The statement said Park abused power by using her “powerful status and authority as president” to extort money and valuables from businesses and infringe on the liberty of corporate management, while leaking official secrets. Park is also accused of colluding with her decades-long friend Choi Soon-sil, who is now in custody, to solicit tens of millions of U.S. dollars in bribes from Samsung Electronics Vice Chairman Lee Jae-yong who is also arrested. The bribes were allegedly offered in return for getting assistance in the transfer of management control of Samsung Group to Vice Chairman Lee from his ailing father Chairman Lee Kun-hee. The younger Lee, an heir apparent of the country’s biggest family-controlled conglomerate, has effectively taken the helm of Samsung since his father was hospitalized after a heart attack three years ago. Choi is charged with extorting tens of millions of dollars from scores of conglomerates to establish two non-profit foundations she used for personal gains. Prosecutors already branded Park and Choi as criminal accomplices.

South Korea’s Constitutional Court, on Friday, upheld the motion to impeach president Park Geun-hye. Acting Chief Justice Lee Jung-Mi read the ruling on the impeachment in a nationwide televised broadcast saying the Court’s decision by the eight justices was unanimous.

outh Korean law stipulated that the ruling has immediate effect – which means Park Geun-hye has been impeached and ousted from the presidency with immediate effect. She will be required to leave the presidential residence  – the Blue House – as soon as possible. A presidential election will be held in 60 days.

Since the December 9 adoption of the impeachment bill in the National Assembly, a total of 20 hearings had been held in the court. It took 92 days before the court’s final decision. Park will now possibly be subject to indictment and detention by prosecutors as she lost her presidential immunity following the court’s ruling. Prosecutors have identified Park as an accomplice of her longtime confidante Choi Soon-sil, who is at the center of a corruption scandal that led to Park’s impeachment for multiple charges including bribery, abuse of privileged information and nepotism. Having been impeached, Park will be stripped of most of the privileges granted to former presidents, including a monthly pension worth 12 million won or 10,400 U.S. dollars –  to 13 million won per month, one paid chauffeur and three paid secretaries. Free medicine and costs for a personal office will not be given to the impeached leader either. Moreover, the period during which she will have a special presidential security detail will be reduced from ten to five years.

Ousted South Korean leader Park Geun-hye was behind bars in the Seoul Detention Centre on Friday after her arrest, on charges including bribery, in a corruption scandal that has brought low some of the country's business and political elite.In a dramatic fall from power, Park, 65, became South Korea's first democratically elected leader to be thrown out of office. She is accused of colluding with a friend, Choi Soon-sil, to pressure big businesses to contribute funds to foundations that backed her policy initiatives.She and Choi, who is already in custody and on trial, deny any wrongdoing. In the early hours of Friday, the Seoul Central District Court approved prosecutors' request for an arrest warrant for Park after she gave about eight hours of testimony.Park and her lawyers had argued that she should not be arrested because she did not pose a flight risk and would not try to tamper with evidence. But the court disagreed, and said she might try to manipulate evidence.

Prosecutors now have 20 days to build their case while Park remains in detention.Park's removal from office capped months of paralysis and turmoil over the corruption scandal that also landed the head of the Samsung Group, South Korea's largest "chaebol", or family-run conglomerate, in detention and on trial.

Park's impeachment on March 10, which upheld a parliamentary vote in December, effectively left a political vacuum with only an interim president in place before a snap May 9 election.Liberal opposition politician Moon Jae-in is leading in opinion polls and is expected to win that election."The arrest of the former president Park amounts to upholding the people's stern order to build a country where justice and common sense stand firm," Moon's spokesman, Park Kwang-on, said in a statement.