By Thai Newsroom Reporters
JUST A FEW DAYS ahead of a court action on an impeachment bid, Pichit Chuenban has today (May 21) resigned as minister attached to the Prime Minister’s Office.
Yesterday, the Pheu Thai-attached Pichit had dismissed hearsay of his stepping down under pressure but today he has finally bowed to it so that Prime Minister Settha Thavisin would probably be saved from the impeachment bid lodged by 40 senators to the Constitutional Court against the both of them.
The Constitutional Court is scheduled for upcoming Thursday to decide either to proceed with the senators’ petition to consider impeaching both Srettha and Pichit on grounds of breaching the constitution and Code of Political Ethics or to drop it.
With Pichit’s resignation from the Srettha cabinet, the Constitutional Court may either waive the case or even proceed with it, given possible judgement that the alleged wrongdoing on the part of the Pheu Thai-attached prime minister was an irreversible “fait accompli.”
If the impeachment bid is accepted by the Constitutional Court on upcoming Thursday, Srettha who is currently on official tours abroad will likely be ordered by court to immediately stop performing as prime minister, regardless of Pichit having already called it quits.
The senators have held Srettha accountable for naming Pichit, viewed as a severe ethical offender, the portfolioless minister, thus leading to their impeachment bid.
The prime minister has been accused of severely violating the military-designed charter and Code of Political Ethics by naming Pichit as minister among those in Apr. 30’s cabinet lineup in spite of 2008’s court ruling against him for a payoff-related contempt of court for which a six-month jail sentence had been handed to him.
Srettha, scheduled to return from his world tour on Friday, was said to have pressed Pichit via telephone to call it quits today.
De facto Pheu Thai boss Thaksin Shinawatra had allegedly manipulated to give Pichit the ministerial seat whilst Srettha could not have resisted since he was quietly pushed to power by Thaksin’s sister/deposed prime minister Yingluck Shinawatra following last year’s general election, partisan sources said.
Pichit who had earlier worked as lawyer on behalf of both Thaksin and Yingluck had been charged with attempting to hand two million baht in kickback cash literally contained in food bags to administrative officials of the Supreme Court.
CAPTION:
Pichit Chuenban showing his resignation letter, above, after signing it, Front Page. Both photos: Thai Rath
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