Thailand’s Constitutional Court yesterday gave crisis-mired Thai Prime Minister Yingluck Shinawatra more time to submit her defense against allegations of abuse of power, which could see her removed from office.
The prime minister, who is facing a cascade of legal challenges to her tenure as well as months of sometimes violent street protests, must give her defense by May 2, the court said in a statement.
The case pivots on the transfer of then-Thai national security chief Thawil Pliensri after Yingluck was elected in 2011.
A group of senators filed a complaint to the court over Thawil’s transfer, saying it was carried out for the benefit of Yingluck’s party.
Under the Thai constitution — drawn up after a 2006 coup that ousted Yingluck’s brother, Thai prime minister Thaksin Shinawatra — such an offense could lead to her sacking.
The court agreed to Yingluck’s request for a 15-day extension — which she made on Friday last week — and said it “will hear four more witnesses on May 6,” including the prime minister and Thawil.
However, the statement did not indicate when the court may deliver its ruling.
Thailand’s judicial agencies have moved center stage of the near-six month political drama which has seen months of protests, left the kingdom without a fully functioning government since December last year and seen a February election annulled.
Political violence has also left 25 people dead and hundreds wounded, raising fears of a wider conflict to come.
Yingluck is also accused of negligence linked to a loss-making rice subsidy scheme that critics say engendered widespread corruption.
Either case could lead to her removal from office and pro-government supporters have upped their rhetoric in anticipation of a knock-out legal blow over coming weeks.
Prominent pro-government activist Thida Thavornseth said she expects the Constitutional Court to rule against Yingluck early next month.
“Until then we will travel to our provinces to get our people ready to rally ... we will protect this government,” she said in a televised speech.
The backstory to the crisis is Thaksin’s removal from power in a 2006 coup which plunged the kingdom into a downward spiral of political turmoil from which it is yet to emerge.
Thailand has since been cleaved by rivalries broadly pitting the Bangkok-based middle-class and establishment, as well as staunchly royalist south, against the north and northeastern rural heartlands of the Shinawatra clan.
Thaksin-allied parties have won every valid election for more than a decade, helped by strong support in the northern half of the kingdom.
Anti-government protesters want Yingluck to resign to make way for an unelected “people’s council” to oversee reforms aimed at diluting the Shinawatras’ influence on Thai politics.
The military is to begin conscripting civilians next year, Cambodian Prime Minister Hun Manet said yesterday, citing rising tensions with Thailand as the reason for activating a long-dormant mandatory enlistment law. The Cambodian parliament in 2006 approved a law that would require all Cambodians aged 18 to 30 to serve in the military for 18 months, although it has never been enforced. Relations with Thailand have been tense since May, when a long-standing territorial dispute boiled over into cross-border clashes, killing one Cambodian soldier. “This episode of confrontation is a lesson for us and is an opportunity for us to review, assess and
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