This year brought a general election on May 14 that produced a coalition government led by the Pheu Thai Party and a new prime minister, Srettha Thavisin.
Pheu Thai came second in terms of seats won, gaining 141 MPs. But in a shock result, the election win went to the liberal Move Forward Party, which secured 151 seats.
Just days after the election result, both parties announced they had forged an alliance with six tiny partners to form a new coalition government.
However, it took the Election Commission more than a month to announce the official election results on June 19. The House of Representatives held its first post-election meeting on July 4 to select the speaker and two deputy speakers.
Fight for House speaker’s seat
Both Move Forward and Pheu Thai fought fiercely for the speaker’s post but finally agreed on a compromise choice of Wan Muhamad Noor Matha, from the Prachachat Party, the third-largest coalition partner with nine MP seats.
Move Forward’s candidate for the speaker’s seat, Padipat Suntiphada, had to settle for the first deputy speaker’s position, while Pheu Thai MP Pichet Chuamuangpan became the second deputy speaker.
Attempt to form government
The eight-party alliance, led by the two major opposition parties from the previous Parliament, put forward Move Forward’s then-leader Pita Limjaroenrat as their candidate for Thailand’s 30th prime minister.
The coalition managed to gather support from as many as 312 MPs, which formed a comfortable majority in the 500-MP House of Representatives. However, this was insufficient to secure the top job for Pita, who needed majority support in the two-chamber Parliament, which also includes the Senate. The 250-member Senate was appointed by the military-led government following the 2014 coup.
Pita denied PM’s seat
The July 13 parliamentary vote to select a new prime minister saw Pita secure only 13 votes from the Senate for a total of 324 – well short of the 376-vote majority required from 500 MPs and 250 senators.
Also in July, the Election Commission asked the Constitutional Court to rule if Pita had violated election law by holding shares in a media company. The court in early August accepted the case for trial and ordered Pita’s suspension from the House of Representatives pending a final verdict.
Pita held 42,000 shares in iTV, Thailand’s first independent broadcaster, which has not operated as a media outlet since 2007 and has fought a long legal battle with the Prime Minister’s Secretariat over the revocation of its broadcast concession.
Collapse of 8-party alliance
Pita’s chances failed to improve despite street rallies by his supporters and efforts by Move Forward to maintain the coalition for as long as possible. In late July, it stepped aside to allow Pheu Thai to lead the alliance, but still failed to draw majority support for a Pita-led government from both Houses of Parliament.
Five political parties in the outgoing coalition government said they would not join a government that included Move Forward, as they opposed its policy to reform Article 112 of the Penal Code, or the lese majeste law. Many senators gave the same reason for not voting for Pita, insisting any amendment to the clause would risk weakening the monarchy and destabilizing the country.
Move Forward refused to budge over the lese majeste law while maintaining its refusal to work with the Palang Pracharath and United Thai Nation parties, which it described as “remnants of the dictatorial regime” led by General Prayut Chan-o-cha, who staged the coup in May 2014.
Pheu Thai’s new coalition
On August 2, Pheu Thai announced it was withdrawing from the alliance with Move Forward and six smaller parties. Then Pheu Thai leader Cholnan Srikaew said his party would nominate Srettha, one of its three prime ministerial candidates, for the next parliamentary vote. Cholnan also said that a Pheu Thai-led coalition government would not include Move Forward, indicating the election winner would end up in the opposition camp.
On August 21, Pheu Thai announced its new 11-party coalition to form a new government. Most of the coalition partners were from Prayut’s previous administration.
New prime minister selected
On the following day, a joint sitting of the Lower House and the Senate elected Srettha as Thailand’s 30th prime minister, succeeding General Prayut, who had been in power for nine years.
Srettha obtained 482 votes for and 165 votes against, with 81 abstentions. Of the “yes” votes, 330 came from MPs and as many as 152 from senators. The majority support gained from the Senate led to speculation that Pheu Thai and the outgoing powers-that-be had done a deal behind closed doors. Many of the senators who voted for Srettha are close to Prayut, including his younger brother General Preecha.
By Thai PBS World’s Political Desk
