The National Legislative Assembly (NLA) on Friday voted to impeach former commerce minister Boonsong Teriyapirom and two other senior figures for their involvement in allegedly fraudulent government-to-government rice sale deals.
Mr Boonsong was impeached by 180 votes against six, with four abstentions. His former deputy Phoom Sarapol was impeached by 182 against five with two abstentions and one spoiled ballot while former director-general of the Department of Foreign Trade Manas Soyploy was impeached by 158 against 25 with six abstentions.
An impeachment requires three-fifths, or 132 votes, to be effective.
Of the 220 NLA members, 190 were present for the vote yesterday and the process took more than three hours to complete.
The three were retroactively removed from office and banned from politics for five years under the provision of the interim constitution.
The impeachment vote was called under Section 6 (2) of the interim charter after the three were found guilty by the National Anti-Corruption Commission (NACC) of faking a G-to-G deal and reselling state-owned produce to domestic firms with close ties to the previous Yingluck Shinawatra administration.
NLA president Pornpetch Wichitcholchai said yesterday the NACC and the three men would be officially informed of the impeachment result.
Mr Boonsong, Mr Phoom and Mr Manas are also among 21 people and companies indicted by the Office of the Attorney-General (OAG) in connection with fraudulent rice sales.
The nine-member panel of the Supreme Court’s Criminal Division for Political Office-Holders has accepted for trial the case against them and they are scheduled to appear before the court on June 29.
A source close to the Constitution Drafting Committee said people facing a political ban may be barred from contesting elections for life if a provision involving the qualifications of election candidates in the draft charter is not altered.
Section 111 (15) of the draft charter says people who have been removed from office or who have been stripped of the right to hold political positions are prohibited for life from running for House seats.