Thailand’s orange wave hits resistance as leader fails in prime minister vote

Jakarta: The leader of the progressive party that topped the popular vote in Thailand’s elections says he won’t give up on becoming prime minister despite having his leadership bid thwarted by the country’s military-appointed Senate.

Pita Limjaroenrat’s Move Forward Party stunned the powerful military and royalist establishment in Thailand when it claimed the most seats in the May 14 polls, having run on a reformist platform that included amending the country’s controversial lese-majeste law, which strictly prohibits defaming the monarchy..

Move Forward Party leader Pita Limjaroenrat reacts to the vote count in the joint sitting of parliament on Thursday.Credit: Reuters

The Move Forward Party won 151 of 500 lower-house seats and formed an eight-party, pro-democracy coalition of 312 MPs, among them members of Pheu Thai, the party associated with self-exiled former prime minister Thaksin Shinawatra, which finished second in the election with 141 seats.

The election result heralded a seismic shift in Thailand. The success of Move Forward and its orange-clad supporters was an emphatic repudiation of the former army generals who have had control in the nine years since the latest of a series of military takeovers in Bangkok.

However, the South-East Asian nation has been plunged into uncertainty amid fierce resistance to Limjaroenrat from its deeply entrenched power base.

While the Move Forward-Pheu Thai coalition claimed a clear majority in Thailand’s House of Representatives, trouncing the country’s conservative military proxy parties, the 42-year-old Harvard graduate’s attempt to become the country’s 30th prime minister was blocked in a bicameral sitting of parliament.

Move Forward supporters gather outside parliament on Thursday.Credit: Getty Images

Under a new constitution forced after the 2014 coup, 250 senators appointed by the government of coup leader Prayut Chan-o-cha also had a say in Thursday’s parliamentary prime ministerial poll, which meant Limjaroenrat needed at least 375 of 749 total votes in the National Assembly after one senator resigned.

That left him requiring the endorsement of 63 members of the junta-installed Senate, but despite being the only nominee for prime minister, he could not secure the numbers. Amid dozens of abstentions and absences, Limjaroenrat wound up with only 324 votes, unable to overcome opposition to his reform agenda, which also includes separating the military from politics.

“Regarding the voting results, I have to say that we accepted it, but we will not give up,” Limjaroenrat said.

“We won’t give up just yet. We’ll spend time to strategise how to consolidate votes for the next round.”

During a six-hour joint sitting preceding the poll, there was furious debate about Move Forward’s electoral pledge to press for changes to Thailand’s draconian royal defamation laws, under which insults of the monarchy can be punished with 15 years’ jail per count. One MP even suggested that the law be toughened to permit those who disparaged the monarchy to be shot.

Limjaroenrat already faced significant obstacles in becoming Thailand’s leader because of a legal case brought against him over claims he broke electoral rules by inheriting shares in a long defunct media company from his late father.

On the eve of the vote, the country’s election commission referred the case to the constitutional court, which is also examining a complaint against Move Forward over its plan to amend the lese-majeste law, the notorious section 112 of the Thai criminal code that covers defaming the royals.

Limjaroenrat can contest another leadership vote in parliament next week. But Thursday’s outcome was a huge setback for his aspirations to upend the political order and for the democratic trajectory in Thailand.

“There was a weight of optimism that the very strong expression of the people’s will might have swayed the political establishment, but I think that was probably always a little wishful,” said Greg Raymond, a lecturer in the Coral Bell School of Asia Pacific Affairs at the Australian National University.

“It’s difficult to see that anything is going to change between now and next week. There is no way that MFP [Move Forward] are going to back down on [section] 112.”

The count leaves Thailand in limbo, with its military-backed government remaining in caretaker mode.

Prayut, who has led Thailand in the near decade since the coup, announced on Tuesday he would retire from politics, but a lengthy stalemate may open the door to his successors in the armed forces taking a familiar path.

“I think there is a protracted period where Thailand doesn’t have any government; these are the sorts of conditions in which you get coups,” Raymond said.

The rejection of Limjaroenrat’s leadership tilt may also trigger a resumption of civil unrest three years after the constitutional court’s dissolution of opposition party Future Forward – a precursor to Move Forward – sparked mass youth-led protests in which demonstrators called for royal reform.

Backing for Limjaroenrat is overwhelming in Bangkok in particular, with Move Forward having won 32 of the 33 seats in the capital, and the party’s orange-clad supporters gathered outside parliament on Thursday night.

With Reuters

Get a note directly from our foreign correspondents on what’s making headlines around the world. Sign up for the weekly What in the World newsletter here.