Advance Party leader and candidate for Prime Minister Pita Limjaroenrat attends a news conference after the general election, at the party headquarters in Bangkok, Thailand, May 15, 2023. Photo by Reuters/Athit Perawongmetha
The move prolongs Thailand’s political stalemate, nearly three months after elections that routed military-linked parties that had ruled for nearly a decade, with progressive parties struggling to overcome resistance from forces Conservatives in the Senate.
Pita, whose reformist party Move Forward (MFP) won the most seats in the May elections, was voted out as prime minister in a joint vote of both houses of parliament last month and then denied the possibility of being renamed a week later.
The kingdom’s ombudsman sent the decision back to the court to determine whether it was constitutional.
The court on Thursday said it needed more time and evidence to decide whether to accept the case and would hear it on August 16.
“The Constitutional Court considered that the request required a thorough deliberation because it includes the administrative principle in the system of the constitutional monarchy, so it decided to postpone the deliberation to study more information,” she said in a statement.
House Speaker Wan Muhamad Noor Matha said a third vote for prime minister scheduled for Friday should now be pushed back.
“The vote for prime minister tomorrow is postponed – we will have to wait for the decision of the Constitutional Court on August 16,” he told reporters.
The developments come a day after the MFP abandoned a coalition trying to form a government, now led by Pheu Thai, who came second in the elections.
Pheu Thai has said real estate tycoon Srettha Thavisin will be his candidate for prime minister, and the party is expected to announce a new coalition later Thursday.
Without the MFP’s 151 seats, Pheu Thai is in talks with other parties to build a parliamentary majority.
This has included some parties involved in the outgoing military-backed coalition government, much to the chagrin of MFP supporters and even some Pheu Thai supporters.
The MFP used an outpouring of support from young urban Thais tired of years of military rule to claim a landslide victory.
But his plans to reform Thailand’s strict royal defamation laws and tackle the business monopolies that dominate the economy have seen him face stiff resistance from the kingdom’s powerful establishment.
Pita’s candidacy for prime minister crashed on the rocks of the opposition Senate – whose members were hand-picked by the last junta – and many parties have made clear they will not support any government involving the MFP.
So, despite winning the most votes and the most seats, the MFP agreed to enter the opposition, insisting that it can still effect change even if it does not hold not the power.
