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Thai court orders Yingluck Shinawatra to step down as PM
Thai court orders Yingluck Shinawatra to step down as PM
(35 minutes later)
Thailand's constitutional court has ordered the prime minister, Yingluck Shinawatra, to step down after finding her guilty in an abuse of power case.
Thailand's caretaker prime minister, Yingluck Shinawatra, has been ordered to step down after a court found her guilty of abusing her power – a decision that could result in huge protests after six months of political impasse.
The country's commerce minister will become acting prime minister following the ruling. Several other ministers were also forced to step down.
The constitutional court ruled that Yingluck had acted with a hidden agenda when she transferred a senior civil servant to another position shortly after taking office in 2011.
"The cabinet has decided that Niwatthamrong Boonsongphaisan will carry out duties in place of Prime Minister Yingluck," the justice minister, Pongthep Thepkanjana, told a news conference.
"The prime minister's status has come to an end," one of the court's judges read out in a statement broadcast live on television. "Yingluck can no longer stay in her position acting as caretaker prime minister."
Thailand has had an acting government since Yingluck dissolved the lower house of parliament in December in a failed attempt to defuse anti-government protests. That election was disrupted and then annulled. A new election is planned for 20 July.
The commerce minister, Niwatthamrong Boonsongpaisan, is expected to replace Yingluck as prime minister. A general election is planned for 20 July.
Yingluck was charged with abusing her authority by transferring a senior civil servant to another position in 2011. The court ruled on Wednesday that the transfer was carried out to benefit her politically powerful family and therefore violated the constitution, an accusation she denied.
Yingluck's Pheu Thai party released a statement soon after the decision, calling the court's ruling a conspiracy to remove the democratically elected government from power and a virtual coup, according to the English-language Nation newspaper.
"Transferring government officials must be done in accordance with moral principle," the court said in its ruling, broadcast live on television. "Transferring with a hidden agenda is not acceptable.
Yingluck's supporters – who mainly come from Thailand's rural north – have vowed to hold a rally on Saturday and argue that the courts have sought to topple her at the behest of anti-government protesters, who have tried since November to remove her from office.
"The constitutional court has ruled unanimously that [Yingluck] has used her status as the prime minister to intervene for her own and others' benefits to [transfer] a government official," which violated article 268 of the constitution and ended her rule as prime minister, the court said.
The protesters accuse her of acting as a proxy of her brother Thaksin, the former PM who was removed from government in 2006 and now lives in self-exile in Dubai. They have staged various rallies and sit-ins at government buildings.
The ruling also forced out nine cabinet members who the court said were complicit in the transfer of the national security council chief Thawil Pliensri.
Liam McCarthy, an expert on south-east Asia at Nottingham Trent University, said: "What is interesting is how such a bureaucratic, or intellectual, tactic will play with the rural communities of Thailand. They may see such a play as tricking them out of their chosen leaders."
Yingluck supporters plan to hold a rally on Saturday, which many fear could spark violence. They accuse the courts of toppling the prime minister unfairly after six months of anti-government protests failed to unseat her. Since November more than 20 people have been killed and hundreds injured in sporadic gun battles, drive-by shootings and grenade attacks.
On Tuesday Yingluck appeared in court to deny the charges against her.
The ruling casts doubt on whether elections planned for July will take place. It remains far from clear whether Yingluck's opponents will be able to achieve other key demands, including creating a reform council overseen by a leader of their choice who would take steps to rid the country of corruption and what they say is money politics, including alleged vote-buying.
Yingluck stood accused of removing Thailand's then chief of national security, Thawil Pliensri – who had been appointed by the opposition – in order to promote her brother-in-law in another post, as national police chief.
The campaign against Yingluck, 46, has been the latest chapter in Thailand's political upheaval, which began when her brother Thaksin Shinawatra was ousted by a military coup in 2006 after protests accusing him of corruption, abuse of power and disrespect for the constitutional monarch King Bhumibol Adulyadej.
Although such a move was legal, the court ruled, it was done too quickly and without "moral principles".
Thaksin's supporters say the Thai establishment opposes him because their position of privilege has been threatened by his electoral popularity, cemented by populist programmes that benefited the less well-off in the countryside.
The court also ruled that the nine current cabinet ministers who were in office at the time of the transfer must also step down – among them the labour minister, finance minister and foreign minister, Thai media reported.
Thailand's courts, like its military, are seen as bastions of anti-Thaksin conservatism, and have a record of hostile rulings toward the Shinawatra political machine. Thaksin's opponents, including those who have rioted and attacked police, destroyed public property and occupied government offices, have usually been treated leniently by the courts. The constitutional court has historically been unsympathetic to Thaksin's allies.
Another ruling against Yingluck is expected on Thursday when Thailand's national anti-corruption commission decides whether she failed to act against corruption in a £14.5bn rice-pledging scheme.
