Bangkok: A Thai court ordered Prime Minister Yingluck Shinawatra to step down on Wednesday after finding her guilty of abusing her power, prolonging a political crisis that has led to violent protests and brought the economy close to recession.
The decision is bound to anger supporters of Ms Yingluck, but the court did allow ministers not implicated in the case against her to stay in office, a decision that could take some of the sting out of any backlash on the streets.
After the ruling, the Cabinet said commerce minister Niwatthamrong Boonsongphaisan, who is also a deputy prime minister, would replace Yingluck, and the caretaker government would press ahead with plans for a July 20 election.
“The caretaker government's responsibility now is to organise an election as soon as possible,” said Mr Niwa-tthamrong, a former executive in a company owned by Thaksin Shinawatra, Ms Yinglu-ck’s brother and himself a former prime minister who was ousted by the military in 2006.
“I hope the political situation will not heat up after this,” Mr Niwatth-amrong said of the court ruling.
Thailand’s protracted political crisis broadly pits Bangkok’s middle class and royalist establishment against mainly poor, rural supporters of Yingluck and Thaksin, who lives in exile to avoid a 2008 jail sentence for abuse of power.
Yingluck, who faced six months of sometimes deadly protests in the capital, Bangkok, aimed at overthrowing her tha-nked the Thai people in a televised news conference.
