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 In a near identical repeat of her billionaire brother's fall from
power, Yingluck was last week banned from politics for five years
and indicted on criminal charges over her involvement in a state
rice buying scheme that cost Thailand billions of dollars.
Yingluck's supporters say the charges against her are an attempt to
limit the political influence of her brother, ousted former Prime
Minister Thaksin Shinawatra, and weaken his Puea Thai Party.
Anusorn Iamsa-ard, spokesman for the Puea Thai Party, said the
decision to ban Yingluck from politics would not be a trigger for
unrest.
"We will not use the decision to impeach [former] Prime Minister
Yingluck as a trigger to organize political movements, that is not
our intention," Anusorn told Reuters.
Thailand remains under martial law following a May coup which the
army said was necessary to restore order after months of political
unrest that left nearly 30 dead. The law, imposed nationwide, bans
all political gatherings.
 The ban and the legal case against Yingluck are the latest twist in
a decade of turbulent politics that have pitted Yingluck and her
brother Thaksin, himself a former prime minister, against the
royalist-military establishment that sees the Shinawatras as a
threat and reviles their populist policies.
Both led populist governments toppled in coups and were subjected to
legal action and street protests by pro-establishment activists.
Thaksin fled Thailand to avoid a 2008 jail term for corruption. He
has lived abroad since, but retains a strong influence over Thai
politics.
In her first public sighting since she was banned from political
office, Yingluck met with Assistant U.S. Secretary of State for East
Asia and the Pacific Daniel Russel in Bangkok on Monday.
Russel, the highest-level U.S. official to visit Thailand since the
coup, called for a "broader and more inclusive" political process.
"The United States does not take sides in Thai politics. We believe
it is for the Thai people to determine the legitimacy of the
political and legal processes," Russel told students at Bangkok's
Chulalongkorn University.
"We're also particularly concerned that the political process
doesn't seem to represent all elements in Thai society."
Thailand's military-appointed legislature last week found Yingluck
guilty of negligence over her role in a state rice buying scheme
that paid farmers far above market prices for rice.
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The same day, the attorney general's office said it would proceed
with criminal charges against her for alleged corruption in the rice
scheme. If found guilty by the Supreme Court, she could be jailed
for up to 10 years.
She is expected to be arraigned in about a month.
Yingluck, who has defended the rice scheme, has vowed to fight the
charges.
"ANY SURNAME WILL DO"
Chavalit Vichayasut, a former Puea Thai Party lawmaker, said the
survival of the Puea Thai Party was not dependant on the
Shinawatras.
"The work of our party does not depend on a surname or a single
family. Anyone can work with us. Any surname will do as long as that
person intends to work for the country," Chavalit told Reuters. "It
doesn't have to be someone from the Shinawatra family."
The military government has said a general election will be held in
2016.
Thailand has been broadly split along north-south political lines
since Thaksin's ouster by the military in 2006.
On one side is the Bangkok-based royalist-military establishment,
which sees Thaksin, a telecommunications billionaire turned prime
minister, as a threat. They accuse Thaksin, the first prime minister
in Thailand's history to lead an elected government through a full
term in office, of corruption and nepotism.
On the other side are his supporters in the agricultural north and
northeast of Thailand, where millions of farmers voted for Yingluck
in a 2011 general election.
(Additional reporting by Pracha Hariraksapitak, Aukkarapon Niyomyat
and Kaweewit Kaewjinda; Writing by Amy Sawitta Lefevre; Editing by
Jeremy Laurence)
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