BANGKOK (AFP) – Thailand’s parliament confirmed yesterday it would vote again for a new prime minister next week, after military-appointed lawmakers foiled liberal frontrunner Pita Limjaroenrat’s bid for the top job.
Pita’s Move Forward Party (MFP) won the most seats in May elections, buoyed by young Thais eager for progressive reforms after nine years of army-backed rule in the kingdom.
But the Harvard-educated millionaire’s campaign to lead the next government was knocked back on Thursday by the legislature’s senators, who consider his pledge to reform strict royal defamation laws a red line.
And the vote came just a day after Thailand’s top election body recommended the Constitutional Court suspend Pita as a Member of Parliament (MP) – providing more fuel for senators already poised to vote against him.
Parliament will hold its second ballot for a new prime minister on July 19, Deputy House Speaker Pichet Chuamuangphan told AFP yesterday.
But it remained unclear whether Pita would be renominated or if he would face any additional candidates.
“We still have to talk about it first,” said Pichet, a member of MFP’s coalition partner Pheu Thai. “For now, it’s gathering opinions and feedback from the people.”
Pita has insisted that he remains a candidate to lead the next government and was “not giving up” despite taking only 324 votes overall – well short of the 375 needed.
Just 13 senators voted for him, with many voicing their opposition to MFP’s pledge to soften the royal defamation laws.
All 250 senators were appointed under the junta-drafted constitution, which political analyst Thitinan Pongsudhirak said was a reliable impediment to MFP’s reformist platform.
“It is a way for the authority and the regime to stay in power in the long term and to prevent a pro-democracy government that can stand against them,” he told AFP.
Thitinan said he expected Pheu Thai – a party that held office before a 2014 military coup but is now in an uneasy alliance with MFP – to field prime-ministerial candidates of their own.
If a Pheu Thai candidate won with the backing of conservative lawmakers, they may yet form a government that excludes Pita’s party altogether, he added.
“The conservative forces see Pita and MFP as a threat to be put down,” he said. “I would not be surprised, along these lines, that they would do the same thing to prevent MFP from even being in the government.”
Pheu Thai secretary-general Prasert Jantararuangtong said the party would meet with the MFP to discuss strategy for the next ballot.
“We need to discuss what we do next,” Pheu Thai leader Cholnan Srikaew said.
