By Thai Newsroom Reporters
PHEU THAI WHEELER-DEALER/Deputy Prime Minister Phumtham Wechayachai said today’s (May 23) event in which the Constitutional Court has accepted an impeachment bid against Prime Minister Srettha Thavisin was practically no cause for concern.
Known as a right-hand man of de facto Pheu Thai boss Thaksin Shinawatra, the deputy prime minister-cum-commerce minister said the Pheu Thai-attached prime minister would most certainly come up with reason-based statements in response to the impeachment lawsuit before the Constitutional Court.
Srettha, scheduled to return from official tours abroad tomorrow (May 24), has today been barely spared a court-ordered suspension to his performing as head of government pending a court ruling on the impeachment lawsuit which is expected to be delivered in the next few months.
From Tokyo, the prime minister made a telephone call to Bangkok for an inquiry about the court’s decision today.
In the meantime, Phumtham said, the prime minister and Pheu Thai-led government would not be overly concerned over the legal battle whilst continuing to run the country as normal.
The Pheu Thai wheeler-dealer confirmed the government’s legal experts are definitely preparing written statements laced with reasons for the prime minister to respond to the impeachment case in which he had allegedly perpetrated a severe breach to the constitution and political code of ethics by naming notorious former lawyer Pichit Chuenban as minister attached to the Prime Minister’s Office despite his having been judged by court as guilty of austere misconduct in 2008.
Pichit who just resigned under pressure yesterday has been accused by 40 senators who had undersigned the impeachment petition of having perpetrated a severe, ethical wrongdoing involving an attempted payoff with two million baht in cash literally put in food bags handed to administrative officials of the Supreme Court whilst working as lawyer on behalf of Thaksin over a Bangkok land grab lawsuit, thus being given a six-month jail sentence and having his lawyer licence revoked.
Nevertheless, Phumtham said it is yet too soon to say whether Thaksin’s daughter/Pheu Thai leader Paetongtarn Shinawatra might possibly be named prime minister to replace Srettha in foreseeable future in case that the Constitutional Court may rule him guilty as accused in the impeachment lawsuit of severely breaching the junta-designed charter and ethical code by naming the de facto Pheu Thai boss’s former lawyer as the portfolioless minister in last month’s cabinet lineup.
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Top: Deputy Prime Minister Phumtham Wechayachai and Thaksin Shinawatra’s daughter/Pheu Thai leader Paetongtarn Shinawatra. Photo:Thai Rath
Front Page: Deputy Prime Minister Phumtham Wechayachai. Photo: Amarin TV
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