2023-07-19 14:19:12
Thai opposition leader Pita Limjaroenrat is not a candidate for prime minister on Wednesday. First, chief justices ruled that he was suspended as a member of parliament, but could still stand as a candidate. But a majority of both Houses of Parliament later decided that he cannot now be prime minister-designate. Limjaroenrat has since left the parliament building.
There would be an attempt on Wednesday for the second time in a week by both Houses of parliament to elect the prime minister. The prime ministerial candidate was the winner of the elections in May, opposition leader Limjaroenrat. Chief justices have suspended him pending a decision on whether he would have interests in the media, as an MP is not allowed to do so by law.
Pita won parliamentary elections in May with his reformist agenda. Power in the country has been in the hands of the conservative military since a coup in 2014. They also dominate the senate, which has 250 members and most votes for a new prime minister. A week ago, hardly any senator voted for Limjaroenrat. Limjaroenrat did win a majority in the 500-member lower house, but not the necessary 375 of the 700 votes from both Houses of Parliament. He was 51 votes short of the premiership.
“A parliamentary dictatorship”
Pita has inherited shares in a television broadcaster from his father, but the broadcaster has actually been inactive since 2007. Pita has also stated that he only managed the shares when the estate was settled and has not owned them for a long time now.
Thailand has been politically polarized for decades by two opposing visions of society. A nationalist who sees the king as an almost absolute monarch, and one who, like Limjaroenrat, wants a democratic and more egalitarian state. The royalist army supports conservative nationalists who fear “a parliamentary dictatorship”, a powerful parliament. In 2006, for example, the army brutally ended the government of the popular social reformer and Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra.
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