Thai vote likely to keep Prayuth PM
Thailand’s parliament convened yesterday for a vote that was expected to keep Prayuth Chan-ocha as Prime Minister.
Thailand’s parliament convened yesterday for a vote that was expected to keep Prayuth Chan-ocha as Prime Minister, five years after he seized power by military coup.
The military-backed party that nominated Mr Prayuth won the second-highest number of seats in the House of Representatives in the March general elections. But Mr Prayuth is virtually assured to remain in office because the prime minister is chosen jointly by the 500-seat house and the 250-seat Senate, whose members were appointed by the junta Mr Prayuth leads.
He had the support of the military-backed Palang Pracharath party, which holds 116 house seats, as well as MPs from smaller parties, before the vote.
Mr Prayuth did not run for a seat, and the constitution enacted under the junta does not require the prime minister to come from parliament. Laws passed under his government handicapped established political parties, raising concerns of the election’s fairness.
The country’s oldest party said on Tuesday that it would join a coalition government led by Mr Prayuth, a decision that led former prime minister Abhisit Vejjajiva to resign from parliament.
He had promised during the election campaign to not support Mr Prayuth’s bid to continue leading the country. The Democrats’ support also boosted the chances of Palang Pracharath holding a majority in the lower house, which is necessary to pass legislation and approve budgets.
The Democrats and the Bhumjai Thai party, the fourth- and fifth-place finishers in March, hold more than 100 house seats, and had been bargaining with Palang Pracharath over cabinet positions in a coalition government.
The Palang Pracharath coalition was opposed by the self-styled Democratic Front, comprising seven anti-military parties led by Pheu Thai, which headed the government ousted by the 2014 coup and won the most house seats in March. They had nominated the charismatic young leader of the Future Forward Party, Thanathorn Juangroongruangkit, as prime minister.
AP
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