National Assembly Speaker Woo Won-shik has deferred closing the impeachment vote for President Yoon Suk Yeol and urged representatives of the ruling People Power Party(PPP) to cast their ballots.

Woo made the plea Saturday evening after 107 of the nation’s 108 PPP lawmakers walked out, having voted on a separate motion seeking a special counsel investigation into allegations surrounding first lady Kim Keon-hee.

PPP Rep. Ahn Cheol-soo, who had pledged to support Yoon’s impeachment unless the president agreed to resign from the presidency, was the only ruling party lawmaker to remain in the chamber.

Including PPP Reps. Kim Yea-ji and Kim Sang-wook, who later returned to vote, 195 of the country’s 300 lawmakers had cast their ballots on the impeachment motion as of 7 p.m.

The speaker called on the rest of the PPP lawmakers to vote, saying it was their duty as patriots and as parliamentarians, adding that the matter goes beyond politics and concerns the nation’s history and democracy.

If no additional PPP lawmakers return to vote, the motion will automatically be scrapped for failing to meet the quorum of two-thirds of the 300-member Assembly.

The motion, which was reported to a plenary session at 12:48 a.m. Thursday, can be voted on until 12:48 a.m. Sunday.