South Korea’s New President: Election Date All But Set Following Impeachment

South Korea’s temporary government was expected this week to confirm the date May 9 for a new presidential election following the impeachment of President Park Guen-hye. Park became the first democratically elected leader in the country’s history to be stripped of her powers Friday when the Constitutional Court unanimously upheld the legislature’s impeachment in the wake of a corruption scandal.

By law, South Korea is required to hold an election for a new president within 60 days. It must also provide 50 days’ notice. That leaves an 11-day window between April 29 and May 9. It is expected that the election will fall on the last day due to several public holidays in the first week of May, South Korea’s Yonhap News Agency reported.

Read: What’s Happening In South Korea? Everything To Know About President Park Geun-Hye Impeachment

“As many people have been thinking, we, too, have internally chosen May 9 as the presidential election date at the working level," a senior official of the Ministry of the Interior, which is responsible for designating the date, told Yonhap Monday. “However, it needs to be discussed with the National Election Commission, and as much as it is an important matter, it has to be reported to a Cabinet meeting and go through other administrative procedures.”

Although there is no requirement for an election date to be approved by the Cabinet, the government is expected to take that step and discuss whether to make the day of the vote a public holiday. The meeting is scheduled to take place later this week.

Park departed the presidential palace for the final time Sunday to return to her private home. She again insisted that she had done no wrong and that “the truth will certainly come out." She was accused of helping her friend Choi Soon-sil extract bribes from major companies, including Samsung, as well as leaking confidential documents to Choi. She could now face private prosecution.

Although a poll indicated that 86 percent of South Koreans were in favor of Park’s impeachment, three people died and many more were injured during anti-impeachment rallies outside the Constitutional Court over the weekend.

Park’s impeachment has left the governing Liberty Korea Party in a state of disarray and in dispute over presidential primary rules to select a name to go forward to the election. There is a concern that they currently unduly favor acting President and Prime Minister Hwang Kyo-ahn. The upheaval has left Moon Jae-in of the opposition Democratic Party as the frontrunner in the polls.