Thailand’s parliament failed to elect the next prime minister on the 13th.
The representative of the Thai opposition single candidate, the Forward Party (MFP), Pita Rimjjarenrat, failed to obtain a majority of the vote, which is a requirement for election, as he obtained only 324 votes as a result of the vote to elect the prime minister at a joint meeting of the Senate and the House of Representatives with 705 people participating that day.
Of the 749 members (249 Senate, 500 House), excluding one senator who resigned the day before, he failed to obtain a majority of 375 votes.
In addition to the 500 members of the House of Representatives, senators appointed by the military also participate in the vote to elect the Prime Minister of Thailand, according to the constitution amended by the military in 2017.
The 43-year-old representative is an elite politician with a background in business. He graduated from Thailand’s prestigious Thammasat University and studied at Harvard University and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) in the United States.
The Progressive Party, led by Pitta, took 151 seats in the general election in May and became the first party, advocating contempt of the royal family and the abolition of the conscription system. After forming a coalition government with seven opposition parties, it secured 312 seats in the House of Representatives.
◼︎ Violation of election laws
On this day (13th), the vote for the election of the prime minister was less than half of the seats in the coalition, so the key was how many of the other parties’ votes in the House of Representatives or Senate were secured.
However, on the 12th, one day before the election, the Election Commission referred the issue of Peeta’s ownership of Thai broadcaster iTV shares to the Constitutional Court, which had a negative impact.
In the aftermath, the additional votes needed to secure a majority did not come out, and more than 200 people in the Senate and House of Representatives did not participate in the vote or abstained.
Thai election law prohibits shareholders of broadcasting companies from running for public office.
However, CEO Peeta objected, saying that the pro-military propensity of the National Election Commission was in check.
Representative Peeta, who became a member of the National Assembly in 2019, is in the position that there is no problem because the broadcaster stopped broadcasting in 2007.
Thailand’s parliament plans to hold a second vote on the 19th and elect a prime minister in a third vote on the 20th if Pita’s representative does not win a majority.
However, it is evaluated that the question of whether Pitta will be elected as the next Prime Minister of Thailand has become more uncertain due to the controversy over the election law violations that have arisen this time.
Local media outlets such as the ‘Bangkok Post’ reported that it was unknown whether Peeta would be able to run as a candidate in the second and third rounds due to the controversy over the election law.
A date for sentencing in the case is yet to be determined.
VOA News
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2023-07-13 15:59:22
