Thailand’s Constitutional Court has removed Prime Minister Srettha Thavisin from office for appointing a minister with a criminal conviction, throwing the kingdom into new political turmoil.
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Judge Punya Udchachon, reading the ruling on Wednesday, said the court voted 5-4 to remove Srettha, whose appointment of former lawyer Pichit Chuenban, jailed for six months in 2008 for contempt of court conviction, fell short of official moral and ethical standards.
The ruling comes less than a week after judges voted 6-3 to accept a petition submitted by 40 senators to remove Srettha from office, but they rejected an application to suspend him from his duties as prime minister pending the probe.
Pichit resigned from his role as a minister in the Prime Minister’s Office on Tuesday in a bid to protect Srettha.
The real estate tycoon is the fourth Thai prime minister in 16 years to be removed by verdicts of the same court.
Reporting from Bangkok, Al Jazeera’s Tony Cheng said the development was “a big surprise”, but Srettha did not appear to be particularly concerned.
“He was seen looking cheerful at the government house earlier today. He said he wasn’t going to go to the court [for an appeal],” Cheng said.
“Most people here in Thailand, certainly those watching the political scene, thought that it was probably unlikely that he would be disqualified from his position. They thought he would get a good rap over his knuckles,” he added.
Srettha told reporters after the ruling that he had not anticipated the decision.
“I respect the verdict. I reiterate that for the almost one year I have been in this role, I have tried with good intentions to lead the country with honesty,” he said.
His removal after less than a year in power means parliament must convene to choose a new prime minister, with the prospect of more uncertainty in a country dogged for 20 years by coups and court rulings that have brought down multiple governments and political parties.
Deputy Prime Minister Phumtham Wechayachai is expected to take over as the caretaker premier.
The Constitutional Court last week dissolved the anti-establishment Move Forward Party, the hugely popular opposition, ruling its campaign to reform a law against insulting the crown risked undermining the constitutional monarchy. It regrouped on Friday under a new name.
Srettha’s Pheu Thai Party and its predecessors have borne the brunt of Thailand’s turmoil, with two of its governments removed by coups in a long-running grudge match between the party’s founders, the billionaire Shinawatra family, and their rivals in the conservative establishment and royalist military.
The decision could rock a fragile truce between influential former Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra and his rivals in the conservative elite and military old guard, which enabled the tycoon’s return from 15 years of self-exile in 2023 and ally Srettha to become prime minister the same day.
A Pheu Thai official said the party will meet on Thursday to decide its candidate for prime minister. “We are the biggest party in the government,” its secretary-general, Sorawong Thienthong, told the Reuters news agency.
The next premier would need to have been nominated a prime ministerial candidate by their parties prior to the 2023 election, with Thaksin’s 37-year-old daughter and party leader Paetongtarn Shinawatra among Pheu Thai’s options.
If successful, she would be Thailand’s third Shinawatra premier after Thaksin and her aunt, Yingluck Shinawatra.
Other potential candidates include Interior Minister Anutin Charnvirakul, Energy Minister Pirapan Salirathavibhaga and Prawit Wongsuwan, an influential former army chief who was involved in the last two coups.
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