Parliament votes to impeach former Thai PM

The vote means that she will be banned from politics from five years.

It came just after the attorney general’s office announced separate plans yesterday to indict her on criminal charges for negligence related to losses and alleged corruption in the rice scheme.

No date has been set for the formal indictment, but if convicted Ms Yingluck could face 10 years in jail.

Her supporters see the moves as part of an effort to deal a final blow to her party’s political power after last year’s army coup.

Analysts say it may further polarise a nation plagued by political turmoil and coups for the last decade. Impeachment required a three-fifths vote of parliament’s 220 members, and 190 voted against Ms Yingluck.

Most members are part of the military, or political opponents of Ms Yingluck and past governments allied with her brother, former prime minister Thaksin Shinawatra, who was ousted in a 2006 coup.

Ms Yingluck did not immediately comment, but in an appearance before parliament on Thursday she denied she was responsible for any corruption and questioned the fairness of an investigation by the anti-corruption commission, which had recommended she be charged.

She said: “The rice subsidy scheme was run by groups of people. It was a resolution of the Cabinet ... why am I singled out?

“To bring the case against me alone, therefore, shows a hidden agenda under an unjust practice, and is a political agenda.”

She also said the anti-corruption commission lacked the legitimacy to judge her because the junta terminated the constitution when it took power on May 22.

National anti-corruption commissioner Wicha Mahakhun said yesterday that Ms Yingluck was to blame.