In a major development in Thailand's six-month long political crisis, the prime minister lost her position at the helm of the government Wednesday after the Constitutional Court decided against her in an abuse of power case.
Deputy Prime Minister Niwatthamrong Boonsongpaisan was named Yingluck Shinawatra's successor.
Yingluck was accused of having transferred a high-ranking civil servant to a powerless adviser position in order to be able to appoint the brother of former Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra's ex-wife to the position of police chief. Thaksin, who led the country from 2001 until he was overthrown by a coup in 2006, is Yingluck’s elder brother.
"The administrative process that followed the transfer is suspicious and this unusual transfer benefited a prime minister's relative," said the judge while reading the decision to a packed courtroom.
In a testimony to the court Tuesday, Yingluck said that the transfer did not benefit her family as Thaksin had already divorced his wife at the time of the transfer. But the court judged otherwise, considering the transfer of the civil servant "a dishonest act."
The court also ordered the dismissal of nine ministers who were in place at the time of the September 2011 transfer.
David Streckfuss, a prominent Thai analyst told the Anadolu Agency on Wednesday that the move by the court -- long considered an ally of yellow-shirted, conservative royalists -- was the first time during Thailand's 6 months of political turmoil that "the old elite has taken a decisive step."
He added that the court decision, however, had done "nothing" to arrest the political crisis -- "quite the contrary."
Although the decision was a major blow to the governing Puea Thai (For the Thais) Party, it could have been worse -- as the court could have dismissed the entire government, creating a power vacuum which would have galvanized the anti-government People's Democratic Reform Committee (PDRC).
The opposition committee, which represents the interests of the Thai elite and the Bangkok middle class, has been demonstrating in Bangkok for the last six months, demanding the entire government's dismissal and the setting up of an unelected "people’s council" which would reform the political system.
After mobilizing hundreds of thousands people in November, mostly from the Bangkok middle class, it has lost some of its momentum in the last two months. At the beginning of March, it closed six of its protest sites in Bangkok and regrouped in a downtown public park. The People's Democratic Reform Committee's calls have also become increasingly extreme -- which some have seen as a sign of desperation -- its leader, former opposition lawmaker Suthep Thaugsuban, asking troops to take over "sovereign power."
Thai analyst Streckfuss said that the decision would "unfortunately embolden the PDRC," making it think it is on the way to achieving its goals.
"We can [now] expect them to become even more aggressive in their actions," he warned.
Pro-government supporters, called "Red Shirts," are outraged by the Constitutional Court decision, seeing it as a "judicial coup."
In the past eight years, the court has taken a series of decisions against the Shinawatra political clan, dismissing two pro-Thaksin prime ministers -- now three -- dissolving two pro-Thaksin parties, and nullifying two elections boycotted by the opposition Democrat Party, who opposed Thaksin.
The Red Shirts plan a major rally in Bangkok on Saturday to denounce the court decision, while the People's Democratic Reform Committee is calling on its supporters to mobilize for a "final battle" to overthrow the government May 14.
Yingluck’s government has faced a wave of opposition protests since her government pushed through an amnesty in 2013 that would have lifted a 2008 corruption conviction against her brother, Thaksin -- a divisive figure in Thai politics who was overthrown in a coup in 2006. He is currently living in exile, mostly in Dubai. Confronted by massive demonstrations, the government withdrew the bill, but the opposition has alleged corruption by the government and the Shinawatra family.
Yingluck dissolved the parliament on December 9 and called February 2 elections, which were disrupted by the People's Democratic Reform Committee. On March 21, the Constitutional Court nullified the elections, saying that they breached a constitutional clause requiring that they are completed "within one day throughout the nation."
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