(Reuters) – Niwatthamrong Boonsongphaisan is to be Thailand’s prime minister in place of Yingluck Shinawatra, who was forced to step down by the Constitutional Court on Wednesday along with several ministers after being found guilty of violating the constitution.
“The cabinet has decided that Niwatthamrong Boonsongphaisan will carry out duties in place of Prime Minister Yingluck,” Justice Minister Pongthep Thepkanjana told a news conference.
Thailand has had an acting government since Yingluck dissolved the lower house of parliament in December in a failed attempt to defuse anti-government protests. That election was disrupted and then annulled. A new election is planned for July 20.
A Thai court found Prime Minister Yingluck Shinawatra guilty of violating the constitution and said she must step down, 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 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.
Thailand’s drawn-out 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 jail sentence handed down in 2008 for abuse of power.
