Rungroj Yongrit/European Pressphoto Agency
Ousted Thai Premier Faces Impeachment
By THOMAS FULLER
BANGKOK
— The Election Commission of Thailand on Thursday cast doubt on
elections tentatively set for July as proceedings to impeach the ousted
prime minister took another step forward, sharpening a political crisis
that has already left the country with a hamstrung government.
The
removal of Yingluck Shinawatra as prime minister on Wednesday on the
grounds that she had illegally transferred a civil servant to another
post was followed Thursday by separate proceedings to impeach her in
connection with a farm subsidy program, a process that could result in
Ms. Yingluck being banned from politics. The National Anti-Corruption
Commission, which brought the latest proceedings, did not clarify how
Ms. Yingluck could be impeached from an office that she no longer holds.
The
Constitutional Court’s decision to remove Ms. Yingluck and the move to
impeach her have emboldened supporters of the opposition, who disrupted
elections in February and continue to campaign for a suspension of
democracy and for an appointed government.
The
Election Commission, which has been accused of sympathizing with the
protest movement, said Thursday that it was not sure elections could be
held on July 20, as it had previously proposed.
“We may have to postpone it,” Phuchong Nutawong, the election commission’s secretary general, told reporters.
Backed
by the Bangkok establishment, antigovernment protesters are battling to
eradicate the influence of Ms. Yingluck’s brother, Thaksin Shinawatra, a
former prime minister and the founder of a political movement that has
won every election since 2001, drawing its strength from populous
agrarian provinces in the north.
Thailand’s
economy has slowed significantly since the latest crisis began six
months ago. Both sides are warning about the prospect of increased
violence.
Ms.
Yingluck’s impeachment case centers on a costly policy to subsidize
rice farmers that the anticorruption commission said the government had
mismanaged.
Like
the court decision removing Ms. Yingluck from office, which legal
experts have criticized for being a disproportionately harsh punishment
for irregularities in the transfer of a civil servant, the decision to
begin impeachment proceedings appeared to some to be rushed and based on
debatable legal reasoning.
Vicha
Mahakun, the spokesman of the National Anti-Corruption Commission, said
Ms. Yingluck was being held accountable for damage to the country, not
corruption.
“Even
though at this stage it appears that the evidence is not clear that the
accused took part in corruption or whether she allowed corruption or
not, the accused did not govern the country as announced in Parliament,”
Mr. Vicha said.
The
policy, which paid farmers twice the market price for rice, had
resulted in “devastating damage to the country” and was an opportunity
for fraud, Mr. Vicha said. The government has accumulated debt totaling
695 billion baht, or about $21 billion, to finance the scheme, according
to experts, although some of that debt will be recouped when the
government sells its rice stocks.
Ms.
Yingluck’s party has accused the courts and independent agencies such
as the anticorruption commission of being part of a conspiracy to remove
her government from power.
The
caretaker government is headed by Niwattumrong Boonsongpaisan, a former
business executive who was hastily named acting prime minister on
Wednesday after Ms. Yingluck’s removal. On Thursday, he was also put in
charge of the finance ministry. Because of its caretaker status, the
government is barred by law from making major funding decisions.
While
some commentators have said fresh elections are the only way out of the
crisis, both the antigovernment protest movement and their allies in
the opposition Democrat Party have threatened to block or boycott the
elections, which they would likely lose.
Chavanond
Intarakomalyasut, a spokesman for the Democrat Party, which has lost
every election since 1995, warned Wednesday that elections could be
“bloody” if they go ahead in July.
“Most people are not confident that the July 20 election will be held or if they are held, they will not be accepted,” he said.
As
it has numerous times during months of antigovernment demonstrations,
the Election Commission on Thursday showed no urgency in setting a
concrete date for fresh elections.
Mr.
Phuchong, the election commission’s secretary general, told reporters
that the body was unable to agree to the government’s request for a
meeting in the coming days because members of the commission planned to
attend a plowing ritual on Friday, an annual ceremony that marks the
start of the rice growing season.
The commission said the earliest that it could meet to discuss who had the legal authority to call elections was next Wednesday.
“The Election Commission is not standing still,” Mr. Phuchong said. “But we have to invite all sides to deliberate.”
Thailand
has not had a fully functioning government since December, when Ms.
Yingluck dissolved Parliament and called for elections. After
antigovernment protesters disrupted the February elections, a court
ruled that the vote had been unconstitutional because of the problems.
The
movement seeking to overthrow the government said that it considered
Ms. Yingluck’s removal from office on Wednesday only a partial victory
and that it planned to continue its campaign for an appointed government
that would carry out unspecified reforms.
Both
the United Nations and Washington have voiced concern over the Thai
crisis. Jen Psaki, the State Department spokeswoman, said at a briefing
that a resolution to the country’s crisis “should include elections and
an elected government.”
A
spokesman for Ban Ki-moon, the United Nations secretary general, urged
all sides to show “utmost restraint and show full respect for democratic
principles.”
A
senior police official said Thursday that at least 15,000 security
officers would be called up to maintain order as supporters and
opponents of the government prepare for separate demonstrations in the
coming days. The movement vowing to overthrow the government plans a
public gathering on Friday, while government supporters said they would
hold a demonstration on Saturday.
More
than 20 people have been killed in political violence during the six
months of antigovernment demonstrations. On Wednesday night, after Ms.
Yingluck’s removal from office, explosions damaged a bank, a hospital
and the home of a Constitutional Court judge who had ruled against Ms.
Yingluck.
The process to impeach Yingluck Shinawatra, the prime minister, may lead
to a ban from politics. Above, protesters celebrated the day after her
removal from office.
COPY http://international.nytimes.com/
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