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Thailand court removes prime minister as political crisis roils

Aug 14, 2024, 7:15am EDT
Southeast Asia
Chalinee Thirasupa/Reuters
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The News

Thailand’s highest court dismissed the country’s prime minister, plunging the government into renewed turmoil.

Judges pointed to his decision to appoint a cabinet minister who had served jail time as an ethics violation, forcing a reset of his governing alliance and casting doubt on an apparent truce between the party of the prime minister, an ally of billionaire and political heavyweight Thaksin Shinawatra, and Thailand’s powerful royal family and military.

It comes just days after judges dissolved another popular political party, which had campaigned on reforming the establishment, and marks the latest chapter in a two-decade saga that has seen coups and court rulings oust governments and upend Thai politics.

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Property tycoon-turned politician Svetta Thavison came to power last August despite winning fewer votes in the country’s last election than the popular Move Forward party, which was blocked from forming a government by the military-appointed Thai senate.

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Move Forward was recently dissolved by the court for a campaign promise to change royal defamation laws — a policy it regarded as a threat to the monarchy.

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