Bangkok, Thailand- Thailand’s Constitutional Court has suspended Prime Minister Prayuth Chan-Ocha from official duties.
According to the Constitutional Court, Prayuth must wait until it rules on a petition by opposition parties seeking his removal on the grounds that he has exceeded an eight-year term limit.
The Constitutional Court has since released a statement confirming it had decided unanimously to take up the petition and voted by a margin of 5-4 to suspend Prayuth’s duties in the interim. Prayuth has 15 days to respond, the Court added but did not specify when it would issue its ruling.
Opposition parties behind the petition argue that Prayuth’s administration began in 2014 as the leader of a military junta, meaning he should not be eligible to continue serving as Prime Minister.
The dispute stems from a controversy over the duration and validity of the former strongman’s term in power, during which time he has disbanded much of the political opposition, curtailed civil liberties and suppressed student pro-democracy protests that sought to reform the Monarchy, the country’s most powerful institution.
In 2020, thousands of people took to the streets in multiple protests to demand that he and his Cabinet resign, while calling for the Constitution to be amended and the Monarchy to be reformed. The student-driven movement was sparked in part by the Court-ordered dissolution of the popular opposition Future Forward Party.
“For more than eight years, Thai society has fallen under the darkest and most bitter times. A period under the rule of a tyrant who took power away from the people. A tyrant who inherits power through a mechanism without democratic legitimacy. We, the people, are hopeful that deep down, you, and General Prayuth’s cronies will come to your senses and realize that the time of General Prayuth as Prime Minister of Thailand has come to an end according to the 2017 Constitution of Thailand,” read a statement from Ratsadon — The People, a protest movement.
According to local media, Deputy Prime Minister Prawit Wongsuwan is expected to take over Prayuth’s duties temporarily.
Nevertheless, Prayuth has survived a series of no-confidence votes in Parliament, where he has been accused of economic mismanagement, with the latest challenge last month.
Anti-government activists have been seeking Prayuth’s resignation for almost three years, saying he holds the post illegitimately because he came to power by leading a military coup that ousted an elected government in 2014.
