The reformist party that won the last elections in Thailand announced on Friday, July 21, its intention to support the candidate of a rival party for the post of prime minister, after the rejection by Parliament on its own.
Appointed by the army, the senators twice rejected the candidacy of Pita Limjaroenrat, leader of Move Forward (MFP), which has the largest number of deputies but whose program was deemed too radical and hostile to the all-powerful monarchy.
The MFP came out on top in the May 14 election thanks to the massive support of young people eager for profound change in the kingdom, which has been ruled by the military for almost a decade.
Now, “the most important thing is not that Pita becomes prime minister, but that Thailand can become a democratic country,” MFP Secretary General Chaitawat Tulathon told reporters on Friday. The party will therefore support the Pheu Thai (PT) candidate, who came in second and is already associated with Move Forward within a coalition of eight parties.
Opposition to the reformist program of Move Forward
Pheu Thai is a heavyweight in Thai politics, led undercover by the Shinawatra family, which includes among its members two former prime ministers ousted in military coups in 2006 and 2014. “In the next vote [Thursday] to appoint the prime minister, the MFP will vote for the PT candidate, just like the latter voted for the MFP candidate,” Chaitawat said.
The kingdom’s conservative elites strongly oppose the reformist agenda of Move Forward, which notably seeks to soften the strict lèse-majesté law, which protects the king and his family from criticism.
On Wednesday, Pita was suspended from his mandate as a deputy by the Constitutional Court, seized on suspicion of irregularities during his campaign. He had to leave the hemicycle in the middle of a meeting to decide on his second candidacy after a first rejection last week. In the end, the vote did not take place, his candidacy having been deemed contrary to the rules of the Assembly.
Businessman with a consensual profile Srettha Thavisin (60), one of the two main figures of the PT, seems in a better position to be the candidate of the pro-democracy bloc for the post of prime minister. But the presence of Move Forward among his supporters could once again lead to the refusal of senators and thus push him to ally himself with movements more conciliatory with the army.