Court suspends Thailand’s Prime Minister Shinawatra : NPR
Thai Prime Minister Paetongtarn Shinawatra arrives in Government House for a cabinet meeting in Bangkok, Thailand on Tuesday.
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Bangkok – The Constitutional Court of Thailand suspended Prime Minister Paetongtarn Shinawatra from his functions on Tuesday while waiting for an ethical investigation on a telephone call disclosed with a senior Cambodian official.
The judges voted unanimously on Tuesday to take the petition accusing him of an ethical violation, and voted 7 to 2 to suspend it from duty as Prime Minister. The court gave Paetongtarn 15 days to testify in support of his case.
Paetongtarn faced an increasing dissatisfaction on its manipulation of the last border dispute with Cambodia, involving an armed confrontation on May 28 in which a Cambodian soldier was killed. The telephone call disclosed as it engaged in diplomacy on the border dispute sparked a series of complaints and public events.
There was no immediate reaction from Paetongtarm after the court order. She said on Monday that she would accept and follow the process although she did not want to see her work interrupted.
It is planned that Deputy Prime Minister Suriya Jungrungruang will become the acting Prime Minister after the suspension of Paetongtarn, although there is still no official confirmation.
Earlier Tuesday, King Maha Vajiralongkorn had approved a reshuffle of the forced cabinet when a big party left the coalition government of Paetongtarn for the disclosed telephone call.
The demonstrators meet at the victory monument demanding Thai Prime Minister Paetongtarn Shinawatra in Bangkok, Thailand on Saturday.
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The reshuffle replaced the former Deputy Prime Minister Anutin Charvirakul, leader of the Bhumjaithai party, who had held several cabinet positions in his government.
Paetongtarn took the position of the Minister of Culture in addition to the Prime Minister in the new cabinet. She said she wanted to promote Thai culture worldwide. We do not know if she can take an oath to stay in this role.
Paetongtarn also faces investigations on an alleged ethical violation by the National Anti-Corruption Commission office, whose decision could also lead to its withdrawal.
Last year, the Constitutional Court withdrew its predecessor on a violation of ethics. The courts of Thailand, in particular the Constitutional Court, are considered as a rampart of the royalist establishment, which used them and nominally independent agencies such as the electoral commission to paralyze or sink political opponents.
The indignation of the appeal was mainly revolving around Paetongtarn’s comments towards a commander of the regional army franc and his attempts perceived to appease the president of the Cambodian Senate Hun Sen to mitigate tensions on the border.
Thousands of conservative and nationalist demonstrators rallied in the center of Bangkok to demand the resignation of Paetongtarn.
