Bangkok (CNN) -- Ousted Thai Prime Minister Yingluck
Shinawatra faces impeachment by her country's Senate, following an
announcement by an anti-corruption body the day after a top court
removed her from office.
Members of the National
Anti-Corruption Committee unanimously decided to indict Yingluck for
dereliction of duty over her government's controversial rice subsidy
scheme, and will ask the Senate to impeach her, NACC member Wicha
Mahakun told reporters in Bangkok Thursday.
Asked how the 46-year-old
could be impeached when she had already been dismissed from the
premiership, Wicha said the case still needed to be reviewed by the
Senate, as Yingluck could be banned from holding political office for
five years if impeached.
Analysts had speculated
that Yingluck's replacement as caretaker prime minister, Niwatthamrong
Boonsongpaisan, may also be implicated in the affair, but Wicha did not
announce any measures against the new premier.
He said a committee
looking into potential criminal charges against Yingluck had not yet
found evidence to lay charges. But another committee looking into her
potential impeachment had found sufficient evidence she had neglected
her duties to prevent damages to the country.
The program, introduced
in 2011, pledged to pay farmers well above the market rate for their
rice, but has run into financial problems.
Critics say it has wasted
large amounts of public funds trying to please rural voters, hurting
exports and leaving the government with large stockpiles of rice it
can't sell without losing money.
The news broke as both
sides of Thailand's political divide are vowing mass rallies in Bangkok
in the wake of the former prime minister's ousting, as analysts warn the
country faces "political freefall" and the potential resumption of
violent clashes.
As tensions and rhetoric
escalated Thursday, officials confirmed a grenade had been thrown at
the house of one of the Constitutional Court judges whose ruling
yesterday forced Yingluck Shinawatra and nine cabinet ministers from
office, in what her supporters see as a "judicial coup."
Lt. Gen. Paradon
Patthanathabut, security advisor to the Prime Minister, said nobody was
hurt in the early morning attack on the home of judge Jumpot Kaimook.
"It landed on his garage," he said.
The court removed
Yingluck, who was elected in 2011 and had been serving as caretaker
prime minister until elections could be held, after finding her guilty
of violating the country's constitution for reassigning a senior
security official in 2011.
The official was
replaced by the then national police chief, whose role in turn was given
to Priewpan Damapong, a relative of Yingluck. Damapong is the brother
of the ex-wife of Thaksin Shinawatra, Yingluck's brother who was
overthrown as prime minister in a military coup in 2006 and has since
lived in self-imposed exile to avoid a corruption conviction.
'Polarization to intensify'
The dismissal of
Yingluck, who has been replaced by Deputy Prime Minister and Commerce
Minister Niwatthamrong, has deepened Thailand's protracted political
crisis, which has occasionally spilled over into deadly violence.
Analysts say the move
has heightened the risk of clashes between opposing camps, and made
near-term compromise solutions unlikely.
"The post-Yingluck
polarization is likely to deepen and intensify," said Thitinan
Pongsudhirak, political scientist at Chulalongkorn University.
"We are now looking at a
political freefall... Much worse looks likely in the near term, before
we can hope for improved circumstances in the longer term."
Analyst Paul Quaglia,
director at PQA Associates, a Bangkok-based risk assessment firm, said
the court's removal of an elected prime minister on what he described as
"fairly weak" grounds was viewed by the government's supporters as a
case of politically motivated judicial overreach.
"They consider it a way to usurp democratic elections," he said.
Yingluck is the third
Thaksin-linked prime minister to be dismissed by the Constitutional
Court, which also dissolved Thaksin's Thai Rak Thai political party in
2007, raising suspicions among government supporters that the
institution was biased against them.
Thitinan said the
appointment as caretaker prime minister of Niwatthamrong, seen as
closely affiliated to Yingluck and her brother, was poor judgment,
especially when another deputy prime minister, Pongthep Thepkanchana,
would have been a more acceptable compromise candidate.
"He lacks the stature
and networks to see through an interim caretaker administration," he
said. "Nevertheless, no matter who comes in as the new caretaker, the
tensions will mount."
Widening divide
Thailand's widening
political divide pits anti-government, predominantly urban "yellow
shirt" protesters against the pro-government, mainly rural and working
class "red shirts."
The yellow shirts, drawn
mainly from Bangkok's middle class, royalist establishment, allege that
Yingluck is her brother's puppet and seek to rid Thai politics of her
family's influence.
Led by the People's
Democratic Reform Committee (PDRC), they began their protests in
November, outraged by her government's botched attempt to pass an
amnesty bill that would have paved the way for the return of Thaksin to
the political fray in earnest.
Parliament was
subsequently dissolved in December ahead of a general election in
February that was disrupted by anti-government protesters, and
subsequently ruled invalid by the Constitutional Court.
The yellow shirts are
seeking a new government -- but not through elections, which the
opposition Democrat Party has boycotted, arguing the alleged corruption
of their political rivals makes widespread reform necessary before any
meaningful vote can be held.
"They claim the Thaksin
clan as they call (it) is corrupt and has dominated the country's
politics, and the only way forward is to remove the Thaksin influence
from politics and not have elections," said Quaglia.
PDRC Suthep Thaugsuban, a
former deputy prime minister for the Democrat Party, has instead called
for power to be transferred to an unelected "people's council."
But Quaglia said the opposition's real motivation for avoiding elections was clear.
"The Democrat Party say 'No, we can't have elections,' because they know they will lose those elections."
In contrast, the red
shirt supporters of Yingluck and her brother, many of whom hail the
north and northeast of the country, accuse the court of bias against
their side.
Hundreds of protesters
from the anti-government PDRC gathered in Bangkok Thursday as they have
for six months, calling on supporters to join them for a mass rally
Friday to push for a new government.
PDRC spokesman Akanat Phrompan told CNN his movement did not recognize the legitimacy of the caretaker government.
"Currently there is no government to govern this country, so we must find a way to appoint a new government."
'Breaking point'
Meanwhile, the red
shirts are planning their own rally in Bangkok Saturday to protest what
Quaglia said they saw as "a judicial coup."
In the wake of the court's ruling Wednesday, supporters at the red shirts' Bangkok headquarters were defiant.
"This is the breaking
point now, everything is leading up to the breaking point," Kanthira
Ketawandee, a Bangkok piano teacher and Yingluck supporter, told CNN. "I
would say Yingluck has died on her duty for democracy."
Thida Thavornset, a red shirt leader, urged supporters to join Saturday's rally. "We won't give up until we win."
Elections are scheduled
for July 20, but Thitinan said he believed it was "unlikely" that a vote
would proceed in the wake of recent developments.
"The PDRC appears intent
on pressing on for an appointment government of its preference, which
can only galvanize red shirt protests," he said. "A showdown is
looming."
http://edition.cnn.com/2014/05/08/world/asia/thailand-yingluck-dismissed-reaction/index.html?hpt=ias_c1
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