Approaching the July 13 Prime Minister Vote, Caretaker PM Gen Prayut Chan-o-cha announced on Tuesday that he’s ending his “political career” and resigning from the United Thai Nation Party.
“Throughout the nine years as PM I have done my best to protect the nation, religions and the monarchy as well as well as for the benefit of the beloved people,” said Prayut who first became PM after he staged the 2014 coup in a statement.
He made major references to his government’s work and remarked, “I sincerely hope that the next government will continue to develop our country,” without naming Pita Limcharoenrat, who is the leader of the Move Forward Party (MFP) and the PM candidate of the eight parties.
Gen.Prayut has never congratulated Pita and the MFP in the May 14 general election. It could be interpreted that Prayut not only lacked political spirit but also disbelieved that Pita would succeed him as prime minister, despite the fact that the MFP won 152 seats in the House of Representatives compared to his party’s 36 seats.
With this obvious election outcome, Pita should unquestionably become the prime minister. However, Thai politics are not normal like this.
Entering the final stages of forming new government, it remains uncertain whether Pita will receive enough votes from qualified members to reach the threshold of 376 votes out of the 750 members of the bicameral parliament.
Pita had tweeted Tuesday, less than 48 hours before the bicameral election, that Thailand should be given a chance to form a government that meets the will of voters and “bring normalcy back to politics”.
The meeting of eight coalition parties at Parliament House on July 11, they could only explicitly confirmed their support for Pita as prime minister by assigning Phue Thai Party leader Chonlanan Srikaew to propose the name. But the support will be enough or not, could not be confirmed.
When asked about the recent Senate support for Mr. Pita, Mr. Chaithawat Tulathon, a party-listed MP and secretary general of the MFP, did not specify the exact number of supporters. He only mentioned that there are efforts to coordinate and gather as much support as possible.
Now, not only the far-right senators but also the Palang Pracharat Party, which has 40 MPs, and the Bhumjaithai Party, which has 71 MPs, have both stated that they will not support a party that would amend Section 112 of the law.
During the joint session in Parliament on July 13, members of both Houses are allowed to ask questions of the candidates for prime minister. However, when it comes to voting, the eight coalition parties will let 500 MPs cast their votes first in alphabetical order, followed by the remaining 250 senators, to avoid creating a controversial atmosphere or arousing distrust.
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