‘Swearing-in incomplete’: Ombudsman says Thai PM failed to vow to uphold constitution

Thailand’s prime minister and his cabinet failed to recite the full oath of allegiance when they were sworn in before the King last month, thus breaching the constitution, the Office of the Ombudsman said on Tuesday.

PM Prayuth Chan-ocha and 35 cabinet ministers pledged their loyalty to King Maha Vajiralongkorn at a ceremony at a Bangkok palace on July 16 but omitted the last sentence, which refers to upholding and complying with the constitution, Reuters said.

“The prime minister did not recite all the wordings as required by the constitution,” said Raksagecha Chaechai, secretary-general of the Office of the Ombudsman. “Therefore, the swearing-in was incomplete.”

Raksagecha added that the Constitutional Court would have to rule on what needed to be done as all of the government’s actions could be seen as unconstitutional. Prayuth, the army chief at the time, scrapped the previous constitution when he seized power from an elected government in a 2014 coup.