By Panu Wongcha-um and Panarat Thepgumpanat
BANGKOK (Reuters) – The largest party in Thailand’s interim government met on Thursday to choose a successor to ousted Prime Minister Srettha Thavisin, as it sought to cement its alliances a day before a crucial parliamentary vote on the new premier.
Less than a year after property mogul Srettha came to power after weeks of parliamentary deadlock, Thailand is once again gripped by political drama as his Pheu Thai party struggles to maintain control and implement its stalled populist program amid a faltering economy.
Srettha’s dismissal by the Constitutional Court on Wednesday was another major blow to the Pheu Thai party, the electoral power of the billionaire Shinawatra family, which has clashed with Thailand’s influential establishment and royalist military for two decades.
Pheu Thai said its leadership would decide in the afternoon on one of two candidates for prime minister – Chaikasem Nitisiri, 75, a former attorney general and justice minister, and its inexperienced leader Paetongtarn Shinawatra, the 37-year-old daughter of a controversial political heavyweight.
“The process of forming a new government should not take more than three weeks,” said party general secretary Sorawong Thienthong.
Uncertainty over political upheaval could add further pressure to the flagging economy, which Srettha had hoped to revive with a series of stimulus measures. Some of those measures could now be called into question, including his much-vaunted plan to give 50 million people alms worth 10,000 baht ($285).
Srettha was the movement’s fourth prime minister to be deposed by a court ruling, and his ouster could mark the end of an uneasy détente between Thaksin and his enemies in the conservative elite and old military guard that had allowed the tycoon to return from self-imposed exile in 2023 and hand over the premiership to his ally Srettha the same day.
Pheu Thai moved quickly to maintain its lead, broadcasting live images late on Wednesday of a visit by its coalition partners to the residence of 75-year-old Thaksin, its founder and influential figurehead.
“They want to be decisive… The longer it takes, the more arguments and power struggles there will be. So the sooner it happens, the better,” said Thitinan Pongsudhirak, a political scientist at Chulalongkorn University.
“If they can vote earlier, the vote is easier to manage. They can control the outcome of the House.”
RISK OF SETBACK
The court ruled that Srettha had “grossly violated ethical standards” by giving a cabinet post to Thaksin’s former lawyer Pichit Chuenban. Chuenban was briefly jailed for contempt of court in 2008 for allegedly attempting to bribe court officials, but this was never proven.
The fact that Parliament reconvened less than 48 hours after Srettha’s dismissal is a sharp contrast to last year, when it took two months for the lower house to reconvene after an election and vote on a new prime minister.
Parliamentarians allied with the military then closed ranks to prevent the election winner, Move Forward, the anti-establishment party, from forming a government. However, in a run-off election six weeks later, they threw their support behind Srettha and Pheu Thai.
The 11-party alliance holds 314 seats in the House of Representatives – 141 of which belong to the Pheu Thai party – and, if it remains intact, should have no difficulty electing a prime minister on Friday.
To become prime minister, a candidate needs the approval of more than half of the current 493 MPs.
Bhumjaithai, the second largest party in the alliance with 70 seats, pledged its support to Pheu Thai.
“As a coalition partner, Bhumjaithai is happy to support Pheu Thai’s prime ministerial candidates,” said party leader Anutin Charnvirakul.
The largest force in parliament, the People’s Party, which was formed last week after a court dissolved its predecessor Move Forward, signaled on Thursday that it would not support the Pheu Thai candidate and would continue to lead the opposition.
The Pheu Thai Party must decide whether to work with party leader Chaikasem or give newcomer Paetongtarn a baptism of fire and risk the kind of backlash that led to her father and aunt Yingluck Shinawatra being ousted in a coup and subsequently fleeing into exile to avoid prison.
“If it were Paetongtarn, she would be vulnerable… If you ask Thaksin, he probably wants her to be prime minister,” says Titipol Phakdeewanich, a political scientist at Ubon Ratchathani University.
“The risk for Paetongtarn is higher. If Pheu Thai cannot deliver, it could mean the end of the Shinawatra family in politics.”
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(Reporting by Panu Wongcha-um, Chayut Setboonsarng and Panarat Thepgumpanat; Writing by Martin Petty; Editing by John Mair and Miral Fahmy)
