🇹🇭 PM Srettha, you're outta here!

Well, did I jinx myself.

Not four hours ago in these very pages did I say ‘Srettha is up today but don’t expect much’ and look at us now — yelling ‘WHAT IS HAPPENING’ into phone screens.

The Constitutional Court has opted to remove Thailand’s 30th prime minister, Srettha Thavisin, just a few days shy of his one-year anniversary. 

Let’s crack in, I guess

Erin Cook

Why? Reuter prepared an excellent explainer earlier in the month that laid out the case against Srettha. A bunch of Senators — those appointed by the previous government and since replaced after those controversial elections — filed a petition following the cabinet reshuffle in April. During that, Srettha tapped Shinawatra ally/bagman (and former bribery convict) Pichit Chuenban as Prime Minister's Office Minister. He had previously served as an advisor to Srettha. 

No way, said the senators. Srettha dumped Pichit quick smart but the damage was done and the petition worked its way through the courts. Call it a “serious violation” of ethics, the court ruled today in an intriguing 5 to 4 split, Bloomberg reports. (We all owe Patpicha Tanakasempipat for her reporting these last few months!) 

The challenge has come alongside all sorts of talk about the ambitions of former prime minister Thaksin Shinawatra and his daughter, current Pheu Thai Party boss ​​Paetongtarn Shinawatra.

What now? This seems to have taken even the most experienced of Bangkok’s press corp by surprise (which makes me feel a bit better), so I think we’ve got a few days of fantastic op-eds and analysis ahead. 

But for now, we do know a few things. Firstly, that digital wallet is absolutely zero percent launching this month. I have been a longtime hater of this policy but only because I want to see smarter ways of getting stimulus payments out there. But it’s bittersweet since it’s not like it’s simply been ditched and will be replaced with something better.

The entire cabinet has been dismissed and nothing will really happen until a new prime minister is elected. This is where things will get interesting. Paetongtarn has long been floated as a likely successor to Srettha for no real reason beyond her lineage and her place in the party machine. She doesn’t poll spectacularly and, like many of the politico-nepos we see in the region, it’s hard to work out if she has her own base or if it’s mostly dad. 

Former attorney-general Chaikasem Nitisiri has been suggested as well, but I think that’s unlikely. But then again, what do I know? What do any of us know! 

Srettha has been booking polling so stunningly low I’ve been taking screenshots for posterity. I’ve never seen numbers like it! But losing an unpopular prime minister in this way and with this background is a different matter. What comes next for Bangkok won’t address the real issue at the core: Thais voted for a Move Forward-led government.