PAD has Cabinet in sights

The PAD leaders cited their constitutional right to seek removal of the Cabinet members for their resolution endorsing Foreign Minister Noppadon Pattama's signing of a communiqué with Cambodia, which support that country's bid to list the Preah Vihear temple as a World Heritage site.

Articles 270 and 271 of the Constitution allow eligible voters, numbering at least 20,000, to lodge a complaint to request the removal of any political office-holder for, in this case, an intentional exercise of power contrary to the provisions of the Constitution.

A resolution for the removal of such office-holders shall be passed by a vote of no less than three-fifths of the members of the Senate, according to Article 274.

Somsak Kosaisuk, one of the PAD leaders who met the Senate speaker, said the Cabinet had acted too hastily and with no transparency in reaching its resolution on Preah Vihear.

Also, he said, the Cabinet had failed to seek endorsement from Parliament for the communiqué, which the Constitution Court ruled later to be an international agreement and therefore required a green light from the national assembly.

"That Cabinet act was 'an intentional exercise of power contrary to the Constitution' and against Article 270," Somsak said.

Article 190 of the charter states that a treaty that provides for a change in Thai territories or extraterritorial areas over which Thailand has sovereign rights, or generates material commitments in trade, investment or budget of the country, must be approved by Parliament.

Somsak said yesterday that the PAD expected to collect the minimum of 20,000 signatures by the weekend. The group will submit the list of supporters of its impeachment campaign to the Senate speaker by next Tuesday, he added.

Prasopsuk said the upper house would verify the names on the list with the Local Administration Department and the Election Commission.

"Then we will act without delay in accordance with the process," he said.