Thai court suspends PM Prayuth pending ruling on term limit

Thailand's Constitutional Court ruled Wednesday that Prime Minister Prayuth Chan-ocha must suspend his active duties while the court decides whether he has overstayed his legal term in office.

It was not immediately announced who would assume his duties as acting prime minister. Under law, it would be Deputy Prime Minister Prawit Wongsuwan, who is ranked first among several deputies. He is a close political ally of Prayuth and part of the same military clique that that staged the 2014 coup that initially brought him to power.

The court agreed unanimously there is reason to consider a petition from opposition lawmakers arguing he has exceeded his term limit and should step down. By a vote of 5 to 4, the court agreed to suspend Prayuth from his duties effective Wednesday until it reached a decision.

The court's announcement said Prayuth must submit his defense within 15 days of receiving a copy of the complaint.

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It did not say when it would rule on whether Prayuth has breached the clause in the constitution on the eight-year limit as prime minister. If it rules that he did, he would lose his post right away.

Prayuth led a military coup that ousted an elected government in May 2014. His critics contend the eight years expired Tuesday, the day before the anniversary of Prayuth officially becoming prime minister in the military government installed after the coup.

Prayuth's supporters contend his term in office started later.

They say his time should be counted from when the current constitution, which contains the provision limiting prime ministers to eight years, came into effect on April 6, 2017. Another interpretation favoring his continuing tenure starts counting from June 9, 2019, when Prayuth took office under the new constitution following a 2019 general election.

If he is not forced out of office, Prayuth must call a new election by March next year, though he has the option of calling one before that.

Polls show the prime minister's popularity is at a low ebb. He has been accused of mishandling the economy and botching Thailand's response to the Covid-19 pandemic.

Student-driven protests

In 2020, thousands of people took to the streets in multiple protests to demand that Prayuth and his Cabinet resign. They charged that he came to power illegitimately, while also calling for the constitution to be amended and the monarchy to be reformed.

The student-driven protest movement at one point attracted crowds of 20,000-30,000 in Bangkok. Several confrontations with the authorities grew violent. A legal crackdown on activists, arrested in many cases under a law against insulting the monarchy because of their criticism of the royal institution, has embittered Prayuth's critics more.

Small protests appealing again to Prayuth to step down and the Constitutional Court to force him to if he didn't have been held daily since Sunday.

The major faction of the protest movement, calling itself Ratsadon — The People — issued a statement Sunday affirming its call for Prayuth's ouster.

“For more than eight years, Thai society has fallen under the darkest and most bitter times. A period under the rule of a tyrant who took power away from the people. A tyrant who inherits power through a mechanism without democratic legitimacy,” the statement said.

It declared that the Constitutional Court “must listen.”