(July 24): Thailand’s Constitutional Court will rule on Aug 14 if Prime Minister Srettha Thavisin should be removed from office for an alleged ethical violation, a case that could spur renewed political turmoil in Southeast Asia’s second-biggest economy.

The nine-member court will convene at 9.30am to discuss its decision before reading out the verdict at 3pm in Bangkok, it said in a statement on Wednesday. The court has received sufficient evidence and heard enough witnesses to conclude hearings and rule on the issue, it said.

A group of senators had put forward the petition accusing Srettha of an ethical breach in appointing Pichit Chuenban, a former lawyer for the influential Shinawatra family, to his Cabinet in April. Pichit was unqualified, they said, citing his 2008 conviction and six-month prison sentence for attempting to bribe court officials while representing former prime minister Thaksin Shinawatra.

The case against Srettha represents a risk for his coalition government that was cobbled together with pro-royalist and military-backed parties after a general election last year. A court decision to dismiss him from office will set off a scramble among the coalition parties to pick a new prime minister almost a year after he took power.

The Constitutional Court said the premier and the petitioners may submit their closing statements by July 31.

The court will decide Srettha’s fate one week after it is scheduled to rule whether to disband the country’s largest opposition party over its election campaign to amend the royal defamation law. The Move Forward party won the most parliamentary seats in the national polls, but was thwarted from forming government by Pheu Thai and other conservative parties. Meanwhile, Thaksin, who’s seen as the de facto leader of Srettha’s ruling Pheu Thai Party, was last month indicted in a royal insult case.

The multiple legal challenges shaking up Thai politics are all happening against a backdrop of stock-market losses, baht weakness and capital outflows. Rattled by signs of political turmoil, foreign investors have pulled more than US$3 billion (RM14.02 billion) from local markets this year, sending Thailand’s benchmark index to a near four-year low, and making it one of the worst performers of all global bourses tracked by Bloomberg in the past year.

Srettha has said he can weather the legal scrutiny, and that his decision to appoint Pichit was lawful. Pichit resigned from the Cabinet in May, saying he wanted to save the prime minister from any legal troubles while claiming the petition was politically motivated.

Srettha has struggled to rally Thailand’s economy after a decade of sub-2% annual growth, which is well behind its regional peers. The former property tycoon has sparred with the central bank on monetary policy and the right approach to reviving growth. He is also grappling with a decline in popularity, amid mounting legal and economic challenges, while the opposition has gained ground.

Uploaded by Tham Yek Lee