Thailand’s Constitutional Court ousted Prime Minister Srettha Thavisin from office on Wednesday, throwing the country into fresh political turmoil just days after the court dissolved the country’s main opposition party.
In a 5-4 verdict, the court ruled that Mr. Srettha, who took office almost a year ago, violated ethics standards after he appointed to his cabinet a member previously convicted of attempted bribery.
Mr. Srettha was seen as a figurehead, closely allied with Thaksin Shinawatra, a populist former prime minister who has long sought to influence the country’s politics even after he was ousted and exiled in a 2006 coup.
The court’s decision is likely to intensify the disillusionment of many Thais, who see the case as the latest proof of intervention by an unelected establishment that is quashing the people’s will. Last week, the same court ordered the disbandment of the Move Forward Party, a progressive party that won last year’s election but was blocked from forming a government.
The constant upheaval in politics has diminished the government’s ability to address pressing issues such as reviving the country’s ailing, tourism-dependent economy.
But this dismissal is unlikely to galvanize angry protests. Mr. Srettha, a mild-mannered 62-year-old billionaire tycoon, was not a popular leader. He was installed only because a military-backed Senate prevented Pita Limjaroenrat, Move Forward’s former leader, from becoming premier. During his short term in office, Mr. Srettha was criticized for traveling abroad frequently with few results to show for it. He has said those trips were necessary to stimulate tourism and foreign investment.
On Wednesday, Mr. Srettha told reporters that he accepted the verdict. “This chapter has ended as the Constitutional Court has decided,” he said outside his office.
Phumtham Wechayachai, a deputy to Mr. Srettha, will be the caretaker prime minister, according to Wissanu Krea-ngam, an adviser to Mr. Srettha.
The case against Mr. Srettha stemmed from his appointment of Pichit Chuenban, a lawyer and former fixer of Mr. Thaksin, to the prime minister’s office in May. Mr. Pichit was sentenced in 2008 to six months in prison for attempted bribery.
His appointment prompted a petition filed by 40 military-appointed senators calling for Mr. Srettha to be removed from office for violating the Constitution. Even though Mr. Pichit eventually stepped down, the court continued to pursue the case.
The ruling on Wednesday stunned many political analysts, who had expected Mr. Srettha to survive. The court had demonstrated earlier that it was divided, voting 6-3 to accept the petition and then allowing Mr. Srettha to stay on the job while it deliberated the case.
Wednesday’s ruling also served as a warning to the ambitions of Mr. Thaksin, a former prime minister and long a foil to Thailand’s royalist-military establishment. The ruling was the latest sign of a crack in the grand bargain Mr. Thaksin is thought to have cut with the royalist-military establishment. That deal allowed him to return to Thailand after years in exile and essentially avoid jail time.
But as Mr. Thaksin signaled he had higher political ambitions, Thailand’s old guard moved to show that it held the upper hand in that uneasy partnership. In June, Mr. Thaksin was charged with violating the country’s harsh royal defamation law. And now, his ally, Mr. Srettha, has been removed from office.
Critics say the ruling also served as a reminder of how the establishment has relied on institutions like the courts to do its bidding and demonstrate that elections in Thailand are a farce.
The next prime minister has to be chosen by Thailand’s Parliament. But it can only select from candidates who ran in last year’s election. Among the contenders, analysts say, are Anutin Charnvirakul, a deputy prime minister, and Paetongtarn Shinawatra, Mr. Thaksin’s youngest daughter.
Mr. Pita, the former Move Forward leader, is not eligible. When the court disbanded his party last week, it also banned him from politics for 10 years.
Muktita Suhartono contributed reporting.
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