The Thai Parliament rejected, on Wednesday July 19, the candidacy for the post of Prime Minister of Pita Limjaroenrat, winner of the last elections in the face of opposition from the army, by declaring his candidacy illegal by 394 votes against 312. “I probably won’t have enough support to be appointed prime minister”, admitted the leader of the Move Forward party a few hours before the election, considering “obvious that the vote of the people is not enough to govern the country” , in a message posted on his Instagram account.
The Thai Constitutional Court had also announced in a statement earlier Wednesday its decision to suspend the parliamentary mandate the same day that Parliament was to decide on his appointment as prime minister. The judges followed the recommendations of the electoral commission, which accuses the leader of the Move Forward party of owning shares in a television channel at the time of the electoral campaign, which is prohibited by law.
Policemen, barriers, containers
Pita defended himself from any illegal maneuver, and recalled that the media in question, iTV, had not been broadcasting since 2007. He risked banishment from political life for twenty years. Although suspended as a deputy, Pita could still stand for the post of prime minister because the law allows personalities from outside the Chamber, appointed by a party, to be head of government. “I would like to say goodbye to you until our next meeting”, launched the person concerned leaving the hemicycle to applause, fist raised.
While the kingdom has been caught in the spiral of repeated crises for more than twenty years between the generals in power and young generations eager for change, this announcement raises fears of new large-scale protests in a country where interventions by the military and court rulings often disrupted the course of democracy to the advantage of conservative royalist elites.
Police, barriers and even containers to block the roads: the Parliament is squared by an important security device, noted a photographer from Agence France-Presse (AFP) on the spot. In the late afternoon, around 300 supporters of Move Forward faced police with shields outside Parliament, AFP found, while others joined a call to gather outside the Democracy Monument, in Bangkok.
Program considered radical
Praised for his program of rupture, which echoes the pro-democracy demonstrations of 2020, Pita Limjaroenrat embodies at 42 the renewal desired by the Thais, after almost a decade of domination by the military since the coup d’etat of 2014. But the champion of the alternation, supported by a majority coalition in the National Assembly, comes up against the blockages of the senators appointed by the army who reproach him for a program deemed too radical vis-à-vis the monarchy.
Rejected for the first time by the bicameral Parliament last week, he needs the support of around fifty additional senators (out of 250) to obtain the required majority. Only thirteen of them approved it on the first vote. He had promised to withdraw in favor of the Pheu Thai party, the second force in the Chamber and a member of the pro-democracy coalition. Businessman Srettha Thavisin (60), with a more consensual profile, is best placed to take over, but the presence of Move Forward among his supporters could deter senators and thus push him to ally himself with movements more conciliatory with the army.
In addition to the iTV stock case, Pita and Move Forward are accused of wanting to overthrow the monarchy. Their plan to reform the controversial lèse-majesté law, one of the toughest of its kind in the world, has provoked strong reactions from the conservative camp, which accuses them of undermining the kingdom’s traditional values.
