Thailand's Democrat Party yesterday unveiled at least three censure
targets - Prime Minister Yingluck Shinawatra, Defence Minister Sukampol
Suwannathat and Deputy Interior Minister Chatt Kuldiloke - by filing an
impeachment motion against them.
It was a surprise that Commerce
Minister Boonsong Teriyapirom was not an impeachment target as the Opposition
has heavily attacked the government's rice-pledging scheme, especially for
corruption. A Democrat source said it was the party's strategy but refused to elaborate.
Observers said the Opposition
might want to attack Yingluck directly as the head of government, pointing out
that it is the Pheu Thai government's policy.
Chatt is expected to be targeted
for his performance in his previous position as transport minister. The motion
seeks to impeach him retroactively.
The Constitution allows the
Opposition to seek impeachment and hold censure debate retroactively against
Cabinet members in cases of alleged corruption.
Democrat MP Jurin Laksanavisit,
the chief Opposition whip, declined to elaborate on alleged wrongdoings of the
three censure targets for fear that the government would be able to raise its
guard. Jurin said the full list of censure targets would be announced today.
Jurin said the no-confidence motion
had been signed by 155 Democrat MPs and two Rak Prathet Thai MPs. He said the
Bhum Jai Thai Party had informed him that it would not join the censure debate.
"I am not worried about Bhum
Jai Thai's decision not to join the censure debate. The Democrat party is not
worried about being isolated," Jurin said.
"When the no-confidence
debate is held the Opposition will be beaten anyway."
It has been speculated that the
mainstream Bhum Jai Thai and its Matchima faction are seeking a chance to
switch sides to join the coalition.
Democrat MP Naris Khamnurak
yesterday complained that Bhum Jai Thai had changed its stand. He said the
party had promised two weeks ago that it would sign both the impeachment and
censure motions but on Wednesday, the party informed the Opposition whips that
it would join only the censure debate without signing the impeachment motion.
The party informed the whips at 9am yesterday that it would not join the
censure debate either.
The impeachment motion was
submitted to Senate Speaker Nikom Waiyarathanich. Nikom said he would inform
the Senate of the motion on Monday and would verify the signatures of the MPs
within 15 days before passing on the motion to the National Anti-Corruption
Commission.
Sukampol, who now supervises the
transport ministry, and Chatt were accused of having siphoned off funds from
the budget to repair roads damaged by massive flooding last year.
Earlier, Democrat MPs, who are
members of several House panels monitoring the budget spending, investigated
and alleged there were irregularities in several flood rehabilitation projects.
Pheu Thai spokesman Prompong
Nopparit said he believed that Bhum Jai Thai had decided against joining the
censure debate because the Democrats lacked strong evidence to back their
corruption allegations against the government.
Prompong called on Bhum Jai Thai
to vote in support of the government when the no-confidence vote is held.
News Desk
Business & Investment Opportunities
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