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posted by takyon on Friday December 09 2016, @07:42AM   Printer-friendly
from the sectarian dept.

South Korean President Park Geun-hye has been impeached:

South Korea's Parliament voted on Friday to impeach President Park Geun-hye, an aloof conservative who took a hard line against North Korea and rose to power with strong support from those who revered her father, the military dictator Park Chung-hee. The vote against Ms. Park, the nation's first female leader, followed weeks of damaging disclosures in a corruption scandal that has all but paralyzed the government and produced the largest street protests in the nation's history. Her powers will now be suspended as the Constitutional Court considers whether to remove her from office.

Ms. Park has been accused of allowing a shadowy confidante, the daughter of a religious sect leader, to exercise remarkable influence on matters ranging from choosing top government officials to her wardrobe, and of helping her extort tens of millions of dollars from South Korean companies. The scandal, which gained national attention less than two months ago, has cast a harsh light on collusion between the presidency and big business in one of Asia's most dynamic economies.

Parliament's motion for impeachment, accusing Ms. Park of "extensive and serious violations of the Constitution and the law," will now be taken up by the Constitutional Court, which has six months to decide whether the charges are true and merit her ouster.

The impeachment bill passed 234-56.

Also at BBC, DW, and the Washington Post.


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  • (Score: 3, Informative) by butthurt on Friday December 09 2016, @08:41AM

    by butthurt (6141) on Friday December 09 2016, @08:41AM (#439071) Journal

    I make it to be 20.1%: 64,156,255 voted for Ms. Clinton and 1,207,141 for Ms. Stein out of a total population of 324,954,000.

    sources:
    http://www.snopes.com/2016/11/13/who-won-the-popular-vote/ [snopes.com]
    http://heavy.com/news/2016/11/how-many-votes-electoral-did-jill-stein-get-in-the-presidential-election/ [heavy.com]
    https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Demographics_of_the_United_States [wikipedia.org]

    Starting Score:    1  point
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       Informative=1, Total=1
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    Karma-Bonus Modifier   +1  

    Total Score:   3  
  • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Friday December 09 2016, @08:54AM

    by Anonymous Coward on Friday December 09 2016, @08:54AM (#439079)

    thanks for the numbers, but I think you should have compared the votes to the total number of eligible voters, not total population.
    (i.e. don't count those under 18). That will probably raise the percentage to something like 30.

    • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Friday December 09 2016, @08:59AM

      by Anonymous Coward on Friday December 09 2016, @08:59AM (#439082)

      *NEITHER* first party candidate won the election with even a greater than 50 percent VOTER MAJORITY.

      We're supposed to trust someone who had a less than 50 percent acceptance rate to act as mostly-figurehead for 100 percent of the populace?

      And that is really the cornerstone of what is wrong with America.

      • (Score: 2) by tangomargarine on Friday December 09 2016, @03:09PM

        by tangomargarine (667) on Friday December 09 2016, @03:09PM (#439173)

        Australia has compulsory voting for everybody, but that causes other problems. They do have a "None of the Above" option, though.

        --
        "Is that really true?" "I just spent the last hour telling you to think for yourself! Didn't you hear anything I said?"
      • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday December 10 2016, @05:14AM

        by Anonymous Coward on Saturday December 10 2016, @05:14AM (#439581)

        We're supposed to trust someone who had a less than 50 percent acceptance rate to act as mostly-figurehead for 100 percent of the populace?

        This is more visible in systems that allow for many parties, but it's still present in two-party systems like ours, just hidden. Voting for someone doesn't mean you truly support them, especially if you're voting for them simply because you believe them to be the lesser evil.

        With that said, what else can be done? I'm not sure how to fix the problem of someone who received less than 50 percent of the population's support getting power over everyone.

    • (Score: 2) by butthurt on Saturday December 10 2016, @04:18AM

      by butthurt (6141) on Saturday December 10 2016, @04:18AM (#439563) Journal

      Around 30%, yes. Estimates from 2014 put the population aged 18 and up at 239.9 million, of which 219.9 million were citizens and 142.2 million were registered to vote—the latter represents a minority of the total population. Sad!

      http://www.census.gov/content/dam/Census/library/publications/2015/demo/p20-577.pdf [census.gov]

    • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday December 10 2016, @05:10AM

      by Anonymous Coward on Saturday December 10 2016, @05:10AM (#439577)

      thanks for the numbers, but I think you should have compared the votes to the total number of eligible voters, not total population.

      This is what was said: "About 51 % of Americans voted for a woman president" It didn't say "eligible voters".