Thailand’s Constitutional Court ordered on Tuesday the suspension from office of the country’s prime minister, Paetongtarn Shinawatra (pictured in a file photo), pending its investigation into a phone call last month between the premier and former Cambodian prime minister Hun Sen, which was then leaked.
The information about her suspension was carried in multiple media outlets.
Her coalition government, including the Pheu Tai party she represents, has been promoting a policy to legalise entertainment complexes, each due to house a casino.
The latest reports said that at a meeting on Tuesday, the Constitutional Court decided to accept for hearing, a petition filed last month by 36 senators seeking Ms Shinawatra’s removal. Only after investigation would such suspension from office become a removal from office, as per reports.
The Constitutional Court voted 7 to 2 to suspend her while the judges consider the case for her dismissal. Ms Shinawatra has 15 days to present her defence to the court.
According to media reports, Thailand’s government is to be led by a deputy prime minister in a caretaker capacity while the court decides the case against Ms Shinawatra, who will remain in the cabinet as the new culture minister following a reshuffle earlier this week.
The senators’ complaint against her to the Constitutional Court cited her handling of the phone call relating to a deadly border clash in March between Thai and Cambodian soldiers.
In the call, she is said to have referred to a Thai army commander as an “opponent”. The senators suggested this showed a lack of responsibility and integrity on the part of Ms Shinawatra, and put the country’s sovereignty at risk.
In another development made public on Tuesday before the announcement from the court, Ms Shinawatra had taken on the dual role of prime minister and culture minister in a new lineup for the cabinet of her coalition government. The step had been gazetted on Monday, according to the Bangkok Post.
The news outlet said – citing “political watchers” – that the move might be Ms Shinawatra’s attempt to stay in the cabinet if she were “temporarily relieved from duty” as prime minister by the Constitutional Court.
While the premier’s suspension is not related to the casino policy, the latter has caused turbulence for her government.
A petition calling for a referendum on the policy had been submitted last month.
It also emerged on Tuesday that a committee of the Thai Senate tasked with studying the national government’s proposed policy for entertainment complexes, had planned to invite Ms Shinawatra in her role as premier to appear before it on July 17 for “clarification on key policy questions”.
On Monday it was reported that a formal reading of the entertainment complex bill – due in the House of Representatives, the lower chamber of Thailand’s parliament – was to be delayed by “about one month”, from a previously-mentioned date of July 9.
