The impeachment case against Yingluck, 47, who was removed from office by a court ruling days before a May putsch, is ostensibly about her handling of an allegedly graft-riddled government rice purchasing program, yet has more to do with a decade-long vendetta aimed at erasing her family’s influence from politics after victories in every national election since 2001.

Source: Bloomberg

Whats happening?

If you haven’t realised, today the votes on the two impeachment cases are occurring:

• Impeachment motions against former Senate speaker Nikhom Wairatpanich and ex-House speaker Somsak Kiatsuranon for their support of an attempt to amend the 2007 charter to make the Senate fully elected
• Impeachment motions against former PM Yingluck Shinawatra for alleged negligence of duty with the corruption-plagued rice-pledging scandal
• It is a supposed “secret” vote from the 220 NLA members of which all are handpicked by the junta council and 100 are former and current military officers. Only 132 votes are required to impeach the aforementioned names.

So What? 

• Well if impeached then one is banned from politics for 5 years
• Last time the military tried this, Thaksin and friends still won the next election
• Will there be protests and violence should (and most likely) Yingluck be impeached?
• Should Nikom and Somsak be impeached, then will every politician that supported the charter amended be banned as well?
• Does this really matter? I don’t care about it to be honest, we know the military is in charge, we know elections are postponed, we know the country is under military law, but as long as one doesn’t make noise about politics we can happily go about our own business. It’s just another chapter in the wonderful political drama TV that is Thailand where nothing’s changed in the past 7 decades.