The Constitutional Court of Thailand dismissed on Friday to Prime Minister Paetongtran Shinawatra for an ethics violation after only one year in power, giving another overwhelming blow to Shinawatra’s political dynasty that could mark the beginning of a new period of agitation.
Paetongtarn, who was the youngest prime minister in Thailand, becomes the sixth prime minister or backed by the Shinawatra multimillionaire family to be eliminated by the army or the Judiciary in a tumultuous battle of two decades for power between the elites at war in the country.
In his verdict, the court said that PaetongTran violated ethics in a filtered phone call of June, during which Kowtow was like the former Cambodian leader, Hun Sen, when both countries were on the verge of an armed border conflict. The fight broke out weeks later and lasted five days.
The decision paves the way for the elections by the Parliament of a new prime minister, a process that could be organized, with the Phei Thai ruling party of PaetongTarn that loses the negotiation power and faces a challenge to underpin a fragile alliance with a thin majority.
In a decision of 6-3, the court said that Paetongtran had put his private interests before those of the nation and damaged the country’s reputation, causing a loss of public confidence.
“Due to a personal relationship that seemed aligned with Cambodia, the defendant was constantly willing to fulfill or act according to the wishes of the Cambodian side,” the court said in a statement.
The ruling brings a premature end to the daughter’s prime minister and protected from the influential magnate Thaksin Shinawatra. Paetongtran, 39, was a political neophyte when she was abruptly pushed into the care center after the surprise dismissal of the predecessor Srettha Thavisin by the same court a year ago.
Paetongtran apologized for the so -called leaked and said he was trying to avoid war.
Uncertainty ahead
She is the fifth prime minister in 17 years to be eliminated by the Constitutional Court, underlining her central role in an intractable power struggle between the elected governments of the Shinawatra clan and a link of powerful conservative and generalistic generals with a high reach influence.
The approach will focus on who will replace PaetongTran, and Thaksin is expected to be in the heart of a gust of horse negotiation between parties and other power runners to try to keep Pheu Thai in charge of the coalition.
Vice Prime Minister Phumtham Wechayachai and the current cabinet will supervise the Government in a caretaker capacity until the Chamber is chosen by the Chamber, without time limit on when it must take place.
There are five people eligible to become Prime Minister, with only one of Chaikasemiri, 77, 77, a former attorney general with limited experience in the cabinet, who has maintained a low profile in politics.
Others include former Prime Minister Prayuth Chan -cha, who withdrew from politics and led a military coup against the last Pheu Thai government in 2014, and Anutin Charnvirakul, a vice president of Prime Minister before withdrawing his party from the Paetongtarian coalition for the filtered phone call.
The ruling leads to Thailand to greater political uncertainty when the public restlessness of stagnant reforms and a stuttering economy is misunderstood that the Central Bank expects that it grows only 2.3 percent this year.
Any administration of Pheu Thai would be a coalition that has only a thin majority and could face frequent parliamentary challenges of an opposition with great public support that is pressing for an early election.
“Appointing a new prime minister … It will be difficult and can take considerable time,” said Stithorn Thananithichot, a political scientist from Chulalongkorn University.
“It is not easy for all parties to align their interests,” he said. “Pheu Thai will be at a disadvantage.”
