Crisis of confidence in Constitutional Court looms: Academic

By Thai Newsroom Reporters

A CRISIS OF CONFIDENCE IN the Constitutional Court’s performances might probably be brewing among all sectors of society following today’s (Sept. 30) court ruling in support of Prime Minister Prayut Chan-o-cha’s prolonged rule, according to a noted academic.

Chulalongkorn University’s law lecturer Pornsan Liangboonlertchai remarked that the contentious court ruling on Prayut’s eight-year tenure might probably prompt a crisis of confidence of the people in such an “independent” agency and aggravate the sustained political conflict between pro-Prayut and anti-Prayut elements.

Pornsan commented that court rulings are primarily supposed to clear up a legal dispute and never to add more doubt to it in the eye of the general public.

“The Constitutional Court has apparently failed to settle the legal dispute surrounding the premier’s eight-year rule. On the contrary, the court has obviously done it the other way around,” Pornsan said.

Such a contentious court ruling might probably sow distrust of the people toward the Constitutional Court and worsen the whole political situation from now until after the next general election, according to the Chulalongkorn academic.

The judges of the Constitutional Court voted 6:3 to rule that Prayut’s eight-year term began in 2017, the year in which the current constitution was promulgated, and that it was not retroactive to 2014, the year in which he practically rose to power by way of a coup which he himself had orchestrated as army chief and managed to name himself head of a military-installed government later that year.

Pornsan maintained that a maximum of eight-year tenure for one’s premiership was stipulated under an interim constitution applied by the coup junta in 2014 but the court has apparently chosen to not observe.

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Chulalongkorn University’s law lecturer Pornsan Liangboonlertcha. Photo: Thai Rath

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