Although the Senate voted yesterday to impeach former foreign minister Noppadon Pattama on charges related to his involvement in the Preah Vihear Temple controversy, the ballot fell short of the 90 votes needed to punish him.
Of the 117 senators present, 57 were in favour of the impeachment and 55 against, while four abstained and one vote was deemed invalid.
The National Anti-Corruption Commission had recommended an impeachment inquiry on grounds that he had bypassed parliamentary scrutiny of the draft Cambodian-Thai communique on getting the Preah Vihear Temple listed as a World Heritage site.
