The South Korean Parliament on Thursday introduced a motion to begin impeachment proceedings against President Park Geun-hye. The opposition-led parliament will need at least three-fourths of the parliament’s votes [Parliament Guidelines] for the motion to proceed. The motion is only valid for 48 hours and the motion must come to a vote by this Friday, or else it will become stale. If the vote is held and the motion is sustained, Park will be suspended from exercising her power and once the impeachment is finalized, she will not be exempt from criminal or civil liability.

The investigation into the president is the latest controversy affecting South Korean government officials. Earlier this month, South Korea’s three opposition parties introduced a joint impeachment motion [JURIST report] against embattled president Park. In October Park proposed [JURIST report] to amend the country’s constitutional provision that limits presidents to one term in office. Currently, South Korean presidents can only have a single five-year term, and Park finishes her term in office in February 2018. In Kyung-joon, a senior prosecutor in South Korea was indicted [JURIST report] in July on charges of bribery by accepting more than USD $11 million from an executive at the online-game company Nexon during collusive stock transactions over a nine-year period.