The Constitutional Court has found Prime Minister Srettha Thavisin guilty of a gross violation of ethics for appointing ex-convict Pichit Chuenban as a cabinet minister. The ruling resulted in Mr Srettha being dismissed after less than a year in office.
The ruling on Wednesday also terminates all positions in the cabinet, but ministers will stay on in a caretaker capacity. The House of Representatives will vote on a new PM on Friday.
Mr Srettha told reporters at Government House that he respected the court’s decision, even though it was not what he had hoped for.
The nine judges ruled 5-4 to dismiss Mr Srettha from office. Three former senators represented the group of 40 former Upper House members who filed the original complaint against Mr Srettha.
Pichit was sentenced to six months in prison in 2008, and served time, along with two colleagues after they tried to bribe Supreme Court officials by handing them a paper bag containing 2 million baht inside a lunch box. He was deemed unfit by critics to serve as a cabinet minister.
All three were representing former prime minister Thaksin Shinawatra and his ex-wife in the Ratchadaphisek land purchase case, for which Thaksin was sentenced to two years in prison in 2008.
Pichit resigned in May as a PM’s Office minister after serving for just three weeks, which was seen as a bid to spare Mr Srettha from legal trouble. The court dropped the case against Pichit but decided to go ahead with the case against the prime minister.
Parties must now decide who they will nominate and vote for as the next premier based on the list of candidates that was submitted prior to the May 2023 poll.
