HomeInternational NewsThai Court Removes Prime Minister Srettha Thavisin Amid Political Turmoil

Thai Court Removes Prime Minister Srettha Thavisin Amid Political Turmoil

Thailand’s Constitutional Court has removed Prime Minister Srettha Thavisin from office due to his appointment of a minister with a criminal conviction, plunging the country once again into political turmoil. Judge Punya Udchachon announced the decision on Wednesday, where the court voted 5-4 to oust Srettha. The appointment of former lawyer Pichit Chuenban, who was found guilty of contempt of court and sentenced to six months in prison in 2008, was deemed to not meet the official moral and ethical standards.

This ruling comes less than a week after the judges voted 6-3 to accept a complaint filed by 40 senators seeking to remove Srettha from office, but they rejected a request to suspend him from his duties as Prime Minister while the investigation was ongoing. Pichit resigned from his position as Minister in the Prime Minister’s Office on Tuesday to protect Srettha.

Srettha, who is also a real estate magnate, is the fourth Thai Prime Minister in 16 years to be removed by judges from the same court. Following the decision, Srettha told reporters that he did not foresee this ruling and that he had fulfilled his duties as Prime Minister with honesty.

His removal after less than a year in power means that Parliament must convene to elect a new Prime Minister, bringing more uncertainty to a country that has been plagued by coups and legal rulings for the past 20 years, which have deposed several governments and political parties. The current Deputy Prime Minister Phumtham Wechayachai is expected to take over as acting Prime Minister.

Last week, the Constitutional Court dissolved the anti-establishment Move Forward Party, a highly popular opposition group, stating that the party’s campaign to reform a law against royal defamation could undermine the constitutional monarchy. The party has since reformed under a new name.

Srettha’s Pheu Thai Party and its predecessors have been the biggest victims of Thailand’s political upheaval, as two of the party’s governments have been ousted through coups amid a prolonged power struggle between the party’s founders, the billionaire Shinawatra family, and their rivals in the conservative establishment and the royalist military.

This ruling could unsettle a fragile truce between influential former Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra and his rivals in the conservative elite and military establishment, which allowed the tycoon to return from 15 years of self-imposed exile in 2023, alongside Srettha’s rise to Prime Minister on the same day.

The next Prime Minister must be nominated as a candidate by their party before the elections in 2023, with Thaksin’s 37-year-old daughter and party leader Paetongtarn Shinawatra among Pheu Thai’s options. If successful, she would become Thailand’s third Shinawatra Prime Minister after Thaksin and her aunt, Yingluck Shinawatra. Other possible candidates include Interior Minister Anutin Charnvirakul, Energy Minister Pirapan Salirathavibhaga, and Prawit Wongsuwan, an influential former army chief who has been involved in the last two coups.

**Tags:** Thailand, Politics, Constitutional Court, Srettha Thavisin, Pheu Thai Party, Move Forward Party, Thaksin Shinawatra, Political Turmoil, Coup

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