Thai court throws out ‘unethical’ PM Srettha Thavisin

Thailand’s Constitutional Court has struck again, removing PM Srettha Thavisin from office a week after it dissolved the 2023 election-­winning Move Forward Party and banned its leaders.

Thai prime minister Srettha Thavisin has been removed by the country’s Constitutional Court. Picture: AFP

Thailand’s Constitutional Court has struck again, removing Prime Minister Srettha Thavisin from office a week after it dissolved the 2023 election-­winning Move Forward Party and banned its leaders from ­politics.

The court ruled in a 5-4 vote on Wednesday that Mr Srettha, a Thai property tycoon who has served as PM for less than a year, breached ethical guidelines and should be removed from office for appointing as minister a politician previously convicted of bribery and briefly jailed.

Immediately after the ruling, his cabinet was also dismissed.

Mr Srettha had insisted his appointment of former Shinawatra lawyer Pichit Chuenban was above board. The bribery allegation was never proven and Mr Pichit resigned in May.

Mr Srettha on Wednesday said: “I am saddened to leave as a prime minister found to be unethical. I performed my ­duties with integrity and honesty.”

He is the fourth Thai PM in 16 years to be removed in a verdict by the Constitutional Court, underscoring the central role the country’s judiciary has played in politics in recent years.

The legal case was brought by a group of senators aligned with former deputy prime minister and current leader of the military-backed Palang Pracharath Party, Prawit Wongsuwan.

Mr Srettha was installed as prime minister after his Pheu Thai party, the populist political vehicle of former prime minister and telecommunications billionaire Thaksin Shinawatra, formed an unlikely coalition with its conservative party ­nemeses in the aftermath of the 2023 May elections.

While Move Forward won the most votes, and thus the right to assemble a coalition government, its tentative pact with Pheu Thai (as the second highest vote winner) fell apart after the military-held Senate blocked MFP’s then-leader Pita Lim­jaroenrat from becoming PM.

Pheu Thai jumped ship and instead formed an alliance with its former political enemies from the country’s military-backed parties.

The deal allowed Thaksin to return to Thailand after 15 years in exile and the party to install its own prime minister.

Wednesday’s court ruling highlights the tenuous nature of the ruling coalition agreement, and the potential for more political instability in a country already struggling with an economic downturn and significant voter unrest.

The Constitutional Court ordered Move Forward’s judicial dissolution last week on the grounds that its election promise to amend the country’s lese-­majeste laws that criminalise any perceived insult of the Thai monarchy constituted an attempt to “overthrow the king as head of state”.

In the wake of its latest ruling, the Thai Enquirer newspaper predicted a dissolution of parliament was unlikely and the coalition would “almost certainly hold on … but with a new head”.

Who that will be is now the subject of furious discussion.

Thaksin’s youngest daughter Paetongtarn is the most obvious candidate from her party though there is also speculation that Interior Minister Anutin Charnvirakul could take the role.