BANGKOK, Jan 23 — Thailand's National Legislative Assembly (NLA) has voted to impeach the country's first female prime minister, Yingluck Shinawatra, but it has rejected the impeaching former House speaker Somsak Kiatsuranont and former Senate speaker Nikom Wairatpanij.
During an assembly session, amid tight security at Parliament before noon today, the NLA decided by secret ballot to impeach Ms Yingluck by a majority vote of 190:18, while eight members abstained from the vote.
The impeachment took immediate effect, resulting in her being banned from politics for five years.
However, the majority of NLA members decided, also by secret ballot, to reject the impeachment of the former House speaker, by a 115:100 vote with four abstentions, and the former Senate speaker, by 120:95 votes with 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 government's loss-ridden rice-pledging scheme, while filing impeachment cases against Somsak and Nikom for alleged attempts to change the composition of the Thai Senate.
The three are all from the Pheu Thai Party, aligned with the red-clad political movement and exiled ex-prime minister Thaksin Shinawatra, who is Ms Yingluck's elder brother. (MCOT online news)
