By Thai Newsroom Reporters
PHEU THAI LEADER PAETONGTARN Shinawatra admitted today (May 24) she is not yet ready to become prime minister anytime soon as Prime Minister Srettha Thavisin is currently engaged in a legal battle over an impeachment lawsuit filed against him.
Paetongtarn, daughter of de facto Pheu Thai boss Thaksin Shinawatra, told reporters she would not take the helm of government in place of the Pheu Thai-attached Srettha anytime soon even if he was impeached by the Constitutional Court, thus immediately losing his prime minister’s status, or more or less pressed to call it quits even before a court ruling on the case is delivered.
Paetongtarn was one among a trio of Pheu Thai candidates for prime minister contesting last year’s general election in addition to Pheu Thai MP Chaikasem Nitisiri and Srettha.
The Pheu Thai leader said she personally believed Srettha would be eventually spared the impeachment following his having named Pichit Chuenban, a former lawyer for Thaksin, a portfolioless minister in last month’s cabinet lineup.
The real estate tycoon-turned-prime minister has been barely spared a court order to otherwise immediately suspend him from continuing to perform as prime minister, pending a court ruling on his impeachment case, largely expected in the next few months.
The naming of Pichit as minister attached to the Prime Minister’s Office had been considered by a group of impeachment-seeking senators as a severe breach to the constitution and code of political ethics on the part of the prime minister.
In 2008, Thaksin’s former lawyer had been charged with involvement in an attempted payoff with two million baht in cash literally put in food bags and handed to administrative officials of the Supreme Court whilst defending the deposed prime minister/de facto Pheu Thai boss over a Bangkok land grab lawsuit.
Such misconduct on Pichit’s part had been considered as tantamount to a contempt of the court, thus rendering a six-month jail sentence for him and a subsequent revocation of his lawyer licence by the Lawyers Council.
CAPTIONS:
Top: Pheu Thai leader Paetongtarn Shinawatra.
Front Page: De facto Pheu Thai boss Thaksin Shinawatra and his daughter/Pheu Thai leader Paetongtarn Shinawatra. Both photos: Thai Rath
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