Troubled Yingluck faces key Senate test
Print Edition
THAIS voted yesterday for half of the 150-seat Senate in a key test for Yingluck Shinawatra’s troubled government, a day before the prime minister is due to defend herself against negligence charges over a disastrous rice subsidy scheme.
Anti-government protesters are in their fifth month of a campaign to force Yingluck out and set in motion political and electoral reforms before a new general election takes place. Yingluck’s opponents want impeachment charges brought against her over the government’s financially ruinous rice scheme. A Senate dominated by anti-government politicians could hasten her exit.
Thailand’s 150-seat Senate is made up of 77 elected senators. The other 73 seats are appointed and are seen as allied to the anti-Thaksin establishment.
Anti-government forces want to ensure a conservative, pro-establishment, majority to influence any decision to remove Yingluck which would require the votes of three-fifths of the senators.
Yingluck is due to appear before the National Anti-Corruption Commission today to defend herself against charges of dereliction of duty for her role in overseeing the botched rice scheme.
While party affiliation is prohibited in the non-partisan Senate, the majority of the 77 elected seats will be decided on the basis of endorsements from powerful, party-affiliated, local institutions, particularly in rural areas, meaning that the result could deliver a pro-Yingluck majority.
“The Senate vote is likely to deliver a result similar to the nullified February 2 election for the lower house, meaning it will be pro-government,” said political analyst Kan Yuenyong at Siam Intelligence Unit.
“However most, around 90 percent, of appointed senators are anti-government so if the Senate is asked to remove Yingluck they’re very close to the number of voices needed to do that.”
Thailand has been locked in a political stalemate since Thaksin was ousted in a 2006 coup.
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