Thailand’s prime minister has been sacked after a leaked phone call with a senior Cambodian politician caused outrage.
Paetongtarn Shinawatra, who was Thailand’s youngest PM, has been dismissed from office by the country’s Constitutional Court after only a year in power.
The court found Ms Shinawatra, 39, violated ethics in a leaked June telephone call, during which she appeared to kowtow to Cambodia’s former leader Hun Sen as the bordering countries were on the verge of an armed conflict.
She also criticised a Thai army commander – a taboo move in a country where the military is extremely influential.
Fighting erupted weeks later and lasted five days. At least 35 people were killed and more than 260,000 were displaced.
Ms Shinawatra, who was a newbie to politics when she took office in August last year, apologised over the call and said she was trying to avert a war. She was suspended in July.
She is now the sixth Thai PM from, or backed by, the billionaire Shinawatra family to be removed by the military or the judiciary amid a two-decade battle for power between the country’s warring elites.
The ruling thrusts Thailand into more political uncertainty at a time of public unease over stalled reforms and a stuttering economy.
Speaking after the court’s decision, the exiting PM said “all sides” in Thai politics now “have to work together to build political stability and to ensure that there won’t be another turning point again”.
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The focus will now shift to who will replace Ms Shinawatra.
Her influential, billionaire father Thaksin Shinawatra – who also once served as Thailand’s PM – is expected to be at the heart of a flurry of bargaining to keep the ruling Pheu Thai party in power.
The leader of the main opposition People’s Party has called for the next prime minister to dissolve parliament once they’re installed.
The deputy PM, Phumtham Wechayachai, and the current cabinet will act as government caretakers until a new leader is elected by parliament. There is no time limit on when that must take place.
