Ex-female Thai PM impeached, ex-top parliamentarians escape

BANGKOK, January 23 (TNA) - The National Legislative Assembly (NLA) has voted to impeach former female Thai prime minister Yingluck Shinawatra, but it has rejected the impeachment against former House speaker Somsak Kiatsuranont and former Thai Senate speaker Nikom Wairatpanij. During an NLA session, amid tight security measures, at Bangkok's Parliament building before noon on Friday, NLA members decided in their secret ballots to impeach Yingluck with the majority vote of 190:18, while eight of them abstained from the vote. The impeachment against Yingluck took immediate effect, resulting her being banned from politics for five years. However, the majority of NLA members decided, also in their secret ballots, to reject the impeachment against the former House speaker, with 115:100 vote and four abstentions, and the former Senate speaker, with 120:95 vote and four abstentions. The National Anti-corruption Commission (NACC) earlier filed the impeachment case against Yingluck for her alleged dereliction of duty and failure to stop her previous government's loss-ridden rice-pledging scheme, while filing the impeachment cases against Somsak and Nikom for alleged attempts to change the make-up of the Thai Senate. The trio are all from the Pheu Thai Party, aligned with the red-clad political movement and exiled ex-Thai prime minister Thaksin Shinawatra, who is also Yingluck's elder brother. Meanwhile, Thai Army Chief General Udomdej Sitabutr, who is also Deputy Defence Minister, urged the red-clad group not to make any movement and to accept the NLA's votes so that the country can move forward. General Udomdej told journalists that he was not worried over the general situation in Thailand after the NLA's votes, saying that concerned security officers have been closely monitoring the situation and have found no signal of "under currents" so far. (TNA)