By Thai Newsroom Reporters
PRIME MINISTER Paetongtarn Shinawatra was today (Aug.29) impeached and deposed as head of government by the Constitutional Court for evidently perpetrating conduct in severe breach of ethics and in sheer lack of evident honesty during last June’s leaked cellphone chitchat between senior Cambodian leader Hun Sen and herself.
The Constitutional Court judges ruled Paetongtarn, daughter of de facto Pheu Thai boss Thaksin Shinawatra, guilty of violating a politician’s ethics and lacking evident honesty tantamount to an act of treason, given disreputable, overly-submissive gestures verbally expressed during the exposed cellphone talk with Hun Sen, father of her Cambodian counterpart Hun Manet, about the Thai-Cambodian conflict which led to five-day clashed between both countries’ armed forces along the disputed border.
The judges concluded that Paetongtarn had put her personal relationship between Hun Sen whom she called ”uncle” and herself above national interests pertaining to the border issue and ruled that her spontaneous talk was by no means a ”tactic of negotiation” as claimed inside and outside of the court and that such submissive gestures were evidently made at the cost of the national prestige and reputation of the prime minister herself.
Paetongtarn who has been suspended by court from performing as head of government pending today’s court ruling had earlier categorically denied the charges contending that what may have been considered an overly-submissive gesture expressed during her spontaneous talk was merely a ”tactic of negotiation” and monitored the court verdict at Government House in company of Pheu Thai members of cabinet and MPs.
Given the historic court verdict, Thaksin’s daughter was immediately deprived of her elected premiership and has yet to be replaced by a partisan person with a simple majority vote in the House of Representatives probably in a few weeks’ time.
Speculated to contest for the next prime minister are Pheu Thai MP Chaikasem Nitisiri, one of a trio of Pheu Thai contestants for head of government in the 2023 election, and former deputy prime minister-cum-interior minister Anutin Charnvirakul who is currently the leader of the Bhumjaithai, an opposition party under de facto boss Newin Chidchob.
CAPTION:
Ousted prime minister Paetongtarn Shinawatra next to the Constitutional Court logo. Photo: Amarin TV
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