Thailand’s parliament called off a vote to select a new prime minister scheduled for Thursday as a coalition of pro-democracy parties struggled to drum up enough support to form a government from conservative senators and pro-royalist parties.
The parliament will set a new date to select the premier later, House speaker Wan Muhamad Noor Matha said on Tuesday. The move to scrap the vote will allow the nation’s Constitutional Court to decide on a petition challenging the legality of the National Assembly’s rejection of Move Forward Party leader Pita Limjaroenrat’s renomination as a premier candidate last week, he said.
Leaders of the eight-party coalition also canceled a meeting on Tuesday that was expected to review the progress in forming a government under Pheu Thai Party, which last week stepped up to lead the alliance and held discussions with conservative parties over the weekend. The party, linked to former premier Thaksin Shinawatra, said it canceled the meeting because it hadn’t “made much progress” in its efforts.
The developments dimmed the prospects of an early end to the political gridlock that’s gripped the Southeast Asian nation since the May general election. The pro-democracy group is blocked by the military-appointed Senate and pro-military royalist parties, which together command a majority in the joint National Assembly that selects a prime minister.
Many senators have ruled out their support for any government coalition that includes Pita’s party, which won the most seats in the election but whose progressive platforms have riled the royalist establishment.
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The delay in government formation has weighed on Thailand’s stocks with foreign investors pulling out more than $3.5 billion this year. The political stalemate is a key reason for souring business outlook over the next three months, the Federation of Thai Industries said on Monday. The country’s planning agency also said a long delay will affect the drafting of future budget bills and hamper free-trade negotiations and appointments of high-ranking government officials.
Pita, a 42-year-old Harvard graduate, lost his first premier vote after members of the Senate and pro-establishment parties voted against him. They are opposed to his party’s pledge to amend the royal insult law, which penalizes criticisms against the monarchy.
His renomination bid was rejected last week by a majority of the lawmakers, who argued that such a move would violate parliament rules that bar a failed motion from being raised again in the same session. And that’s being now challenged by the Office of the Ombudsman in the charter court on grounds of constitutionality, as the charter itself doesn’t limit how many times a candidate can be nominated for the top political office.
It’s not clear whether the court will immediately act on the case when it’s due to meet on Wednesday.
The pro-democracy alliance, now led by Pheu Thai after Pita backed down, commands a majority in the newly-elected lower house, but the next prime minister needs to have more than half the votes in the combined National Assembly, whose strength is currently at 748. The key challenge is winning the support of the 249-member Senate, which is stacked with allies of the pro-military royalist establishment.
“The fact that Pheu Thai postponed the meeting reflects that attempts are still being made to find ways to form a government together,” said Chaithawat Tulathon, secretary-general of Move Forward. “As long as Pheu Thai and Move Forward remain together, it won’t be easy for the other side to form a minority government.”
Pheu Thai, which has not yet named its candidate for the next prime minister vote, said last week the coalition will stay intact for now, but hinted that there may be a scenario in which one particular party will be removed in order to get sufficient backing for it to form a government.
(Updates with quotes, details from fourth paragraph)
