Former Thai Leader Impeached, Reawakening Tensions

BANGKOK — Dormant political tensions re-emerged in Thailand on Friday when the military junta’s handpicked assembly impeached the country’s former prime minister, Yingluck Shinawatra.

Shortly before the vote, which imposed a five-year political ban on Ms. Yingluck, the government also announced that she would be charged with criminal negligence over a subsidy program for rice farmers.

Ms. Yingluck, the sister of Thaksin Shinawatra, the tycoon and founder of a political movement that has antagonized Thailand’s elites and plunged the country into nearly a decade of political turmoil, faces up to 10 years in prison.

After overthrowing Ms. Yingluck’s government in May, the military formed its own government, saying that it did not want to exacerbate tensions in Thailand’s deeply fissured society and would work to achieve reconciliation.

Nikom Wairatpanij, a former speaker of the Thai Senate, was charged in the impeachment hearings with violating a constitution that no longer exists. He was charged with procedural lapses while passing an amendment that would have made the Senate fully elected. He survived the impeachment vote, 95 for and 120 against.

“I would like to urge you,” Mr. Nikom said during the hearings earlier this month, “if you are democratic people, do not hate the people.”

A version of this article appears in print on January 23, 2015, on page A6 of the New York edition with the headline: Former Thai Leader Impeached, Reawakening Tensions. Order Reprints| Today’s Paper|Subscribe

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