Power shift: Anutin speaking at a press conference after securing the backing of opposition People’s Party to serve as Thailand’s next prime minister in Bangkok. — AFP
The country’s acting prime minister moved to dissolve parliament, his party said, after the largest opposition group backed a rival candidate to lead the country.
The decision – a potentially legally fraught one – could see the kingdom hold fresh elections before the year’s end, just two years after it last went to the polls in May 2023.
A power vacuum has consumed Thailand’s top office since Friday, when prime minister Paetongtarn Shinawatra was ousted by the Constitutional Court over an ethics breach.
Her Pheu Thai party – still governing in a caretaker capacity – had courted the power-broking opposition People’s Party to back its new candidate for prime minister.
But the People’s Party instead declared its support for conservative tycoon Anutin Charnvirakul.
Moments later, Pheu Thai secretary-general Sorawong Thienthong said that acting Prime Minister Phumtham Wechayachai “has submitted a house dissolution decree”.
Whether a caretaker government has the power to dissolve parliament is a hotly debated question.
But according to the Thai constitution, if the king approves the dissolution of parliament, an election must take place between 45 and 60 days later.
“It’s likely an election will happen in the next few months,” said Titipol Phakdeewanich, a political scientist from Ubon Ratchathani University.
“An election might be the best solution for the country, because now it’s almost impossible to form a normal government.”
The People’s Party also said its backing of Anutin was conditional on dissolution of the house within four months – meaning his elevation to office would likely lead to fresh polls, albeit on a later timescale.
“It’s always the same power struggles, while our lives remain unchanged,” complained 23-year-old Bangkok hairdresser Kanjana Sangkasupan.
“As a member of the young generation, I want a new kind of politics.”
The People’s Party pledged its 143-strong parliamentary bloc to back Anutin, heir to a construction engineering fortune, who told reporters it was “the duty of MPs” to vote him into office.
“From this point onward forming a government is essential, and we understand the party is seeking a way to resolve the crises,” he said. — AFP
