Court suspension spells doom for Shinawatra-linked PMs
Paetongtarn Shinawatra is not the first Thai prime minister to be suspended by the Constitutional Court – and she's unlikely to be the last.
Her suspension on Tuesday (July 1) over an alleged breach of ministerial ethics marks yet another high-profile intervention by the court.
Back in 2022, then PM General Prayut Chan-o-cha was suspended while the court deliberated on whether he had breached the eight-year term limit. The judges eventually ruled in his favour, allowing him to resume office.
In contrast, the court allowed Srettha Thavisin, Paetongtarn’s immediate predecessor, to stay in office after accepting a case against him in May 2024 – only to remove him three months later. Judges ruled he had breached ethical standards by appointing a former convict to his Cabinet.
The legal battles faced by these three leaders under the 2017 Constitution suggest that even the most electorally successful governments remain at the mercy of a powerful judiciary.
A common pattern
The Constitutional Court’s willingness to accept petitions against sitting prime ministers – sometimes filed by senators, sometimes by opposition MPs – has become a recurring feature of Thai politics.
The latest case against Paetongtarn stems from a leaked phone call with former Cambodian PM Hun Sen. In the recording, she refers to Hun Sen as “uncle”, seeks his guidance on managing rising border tensions between Thailand and Cambodia, and appears to disparage her 2nd Army Region chief, Lt-General Boonsin Padklang. The recording was leaked via Hun Sen’s social media.
While Paetongtarn defended the call as a diplomatic effort to defuse border tensions, critics argue it revealed her naïvety – particularly in making provocative comments during a conversation that could be recorded. Others have accused her of undermining national sovereignty.
Hun Sen ruled Cambodia for over two decades and is still considered the country’s most powerful figure, despite handing power to his son, Hun Manet, two years ago.
The court responded to the petition against Paetongtarn swiftly, voting unanimously to accept the case and 7:2 to suspend her from duty pending its ruling.
If found guilty, Paetongtarn, leader of the ruling Pheu Thai Party, will become the fourth prime minister removed by the Constitutional Court since it was established in October 1997, following Samak Sundaravej in 2008, Yingluck Shinawatra in 2014 and Srettha in 2024.
Shadow of Thaksin
All three leaders ousted by the court were seen as proxies of Paetongtarn’s father, former PM and Pheu Thai patriarch Thaksin Shinawatra.
In an ironic twist, Thaksin survived his own Constitutional Court battle shortly after becoming PM in 2001, when he was accused of using proxies to conceal over 2.3 billion baht in assets from the National Anti-Corruption Commission.
The court ruled in Thaksin’s favour by a narrow 8:7 margin after his tearful insistence that the omission was an “honest mistake”.
Samak was removed in 2008 – not for corruption or abuse of power, but for receiving a modest salary as host of a TV cooking show while serving as prime minister. Judges found him guilty of a conflict of interest in a case brought by a group of senators.
Samak also lost his position as leader of the ruling People’s Power Party – a reincarnation of Thaksin’s Thai Rak Thai Party, which was dissolved by court when Thaksin was ousted in the 2006 military coup.
Yingluck’s dismissal in 2014 was more politically charged: the court found her guilty of violating the Constitution by transferring the National Security Council secretary-general in a reshuffle that allowed her cousin to become National Police chief. She was dismissed from office on May 7.
General Prayut, meanwhile, successfully weathered the legal storm, surviving five Constitutional Court cases during his tenure.
The fifth and most threatening case was filed in August 2022, when 172 opposition MPs accused him of exceeding his charter-prescribed eight-year tenure limit. They argued that Prayut’s time in power should be counted from the formation of his post-coup government in August 2014.
Instead, the court ruled by 6:3 that his official term began on April 6, 2017, with the promulgation of the Constitution.
Srettha’s removal resulted from a lawsuit filed by 40 senators, accusing him of violating the charter by appointing Thaksin’s former lawyer, Pichit Cheunban, as PM’s Office minister despite Pichit’s prison record.
The petition noted the charter required ministers to have “evident integrity” and high ethical standards. Srettha was removed from office on August 14, 2024, after being found guilty of a “grossly” violating constitutional ethics by appointing a former convict to his Cabinet.