South Korea said on Tuesday that it would hold a snap election on June 3 to choose the successor to former President Yoon Suk Yeol, who was removed​ last week for his attempt to impose martial law.

The country’s constitutional court formally dismissed Yoon on Friday when its eight justices unanimously endorsed his impeachment by the National Assembly in December.

South Korea has since shifted its focus to the question of who should lead the country after months of political turmoil that have tested the resilience of its democracy and weakened its leadership. By law, South Korea must elect a new President within 60 days of the court’s ruling.

On Monday, the government confirmed June 3 as Election Day, designating it as a national holiday to encourage voter turnout.

In the coming days, the rival political parties will schedule primary races to select their presidential candidates by May 12, when the official campaign will start. Whoever wins the election will assume office immediately — without the country’s typical two-month transition period.

Until then, South Korea must continue to deal with external challenges — including President Donald J. Trump’s sweeping 25 per cent tariff on its goods — under an unelected interim leader, Prime Minister Han Duck-soo.

Lee Jae-myung, the leader of the main Opposition Democratic Party who narrowly lost the 2022 election to Yoon, is widely expected to win his party’s nomination, although several other politicians have expressed their intention to join its primary race.

Lee was expected to step down as party chairman in the coming days so he could focus on ​his presidential bid. In surveys in recent weeks, more South Koreans expressed wanting Lee as the next President, by a margin of ​around 25 percentage points. Lee is on trial on several criminal charges, including bribery, which he says Yoon’s government filed with political motives.

Who Yoon’s conservative People Power Party will choose is a lot less clear. More than a dozen politicians​, including labour minister Kim Moon Soo, have shown interest in competing, but no strong front-runner has emerged yet.

Yoon’s ouster was a crushing blow to the People Power Party: He was the second conservative President in a row to be ousted by impeachment and the third consecutive conservative President to face criminal indictment before or after their term ended.