Thai Prime Minister Petunthan Suspended

Since the exposure of the Thai “call gate”, Thailand’s youngest Prime Minister Petunthan has been caught up in a “slip of the tongue” storm and has been in trouble. She not only faces the threat of the second-ranking party to withdraw from the ruling coalition, the pressure of impeachment and no-confidence votes, but also has to be investigated for violating professional ethics. On the 28th of last month, a demonstration broke out in Bangkok, the capital of Thailand, and thousands of protesters demanded the resignation of Prime Minister Petunthan. And this storm has reached a critical point today.

According to reports, the Thai Constitutional Court announced on July 1 that it would accept a petition to investigate whether Prime Minister Petunthan had violated the constitution and decided to suspend Petunthan from exercising the powers of the prime minister from today.

According to the statement of the Constitutional Court, the nine judges of the Constitutional Court accepted the petition with a vote of 9 to 0, and decided with a vote of 7 to 2 that Petunthan would suspend the exercise of the powers of the prime minister until a ruling is made.

It was also reported that on June 20, local time, the Speaker of the Upper House of the Thai Parliament submitted a petition to the Thai Constitutional Court to impeach Prime Minister Petunthan on the grounds that the content of Petunthan’s call with Cambodian Senate Chairman Hun Sen was suspected of violating the constitution and violating ethical norms.

On June 15, Petunthan had a phone call with Hun Sen, the former Prime Minister and Senate Chairman of Cambodia. During the call, she called Hun Sen “uncle” and claimed to be a “niece”, asking Hun Sen to help resolve the border dispute. Petunthan also secretly criticized the military generals as “crazy” and standing “opposite” to the government.

In addition, she also told Hun Sen that the so-called “water and electricity cuts” to Cambodia were only proposed measures and would not be implemented, and apologized to Hun Sen for this.

On June 18, the recording of the call was exposed and confirmed by Hun Sen, which instantly dropped a “shock bomb” in Thailand. Petunthan was criticized for showing weakness to Hun Sen, undermining national sovereignty and dignity; crossing the red line of criticizing the military; exposing the contradiction between the military and the government.