2023-07-19 06:01:52
Thailand
The winner of the elections at the heart of a new twist
After winning the legislative elections, Pita Limjaroenrat saw his parliamentary mandate suspended before a crucial vote on his nomination as Prime Minister.
PostedJuly 19, 2023, 8:01 AM
Pita Limjaroenrat created a surprise last May during the legislative elections.
REUTERS
Thailand’s Constitutional Court on Wednesday suspended Pita Limjaroenrat from her mandate as an MP, the same day that Parliament was to decide on his appointment as Prime Minister. This is a new twist in a kingdom caught in the spiral of repeated political crises for more than twenty years, between the generals in power and young generations eager for change.
The Constitutional Court suspended Pita Limjaroenrat from his duties as a parliamentarian, while the person concerned attended the debates in the hemicycle on his second candidacy to become head of government. The judges followed the recommendations of the electoral commission, which accuses the leader of the Move Forward party of own shares in a television channel during the election campaign, which is prohibited by Thai law.
Pita fought back of any illegal maneuver, and recalled that the media in question, iTV, had not been broadcasting since 2007. He risks being banned from political life for twenty years. This announcement raises fears of new large-scale protests, in a kingdom where army interventions and court decisions have often disrupted the course of democracy, to the advantage of the conservative royalist elites.
Minimal odds
Acclaimed for his program of rupture, which echoes the pro-democracy demonstrations of 2020, Pita embodies at 42 the renewal desired by the Thais, following a quasi-decade of domination by the military since the coup d’état of 2014. But the champion of the alternation, supported by a majority coalition in the National Assembly, comes up once morest the blockages of the senators appointed by the army who reproach him for a program considered too radical, vis-à-vis the monarchy.
Although suspended as an MP, Pita can still run to become Prime Minister, because Thai law allows personalities from outside the hemicycle, appointed by a party, to be head of government. But his chances of convincing enough members of the Upper House are slim. Some senators, burned by his plan to reform the lèse-majesté law, even think that Pita should not be allowed to appear, under the rule which prohibits Parliament from discussing the same motion twice during a session.
Risk of disputes
For the moment, the MP Move Forward, darling of the new generations, is the only declared candidate to become Prime Minister. “If you vote in accordance with the voice of the people, whatever the result, your name will be engraved in this kingdom with great honor and pride”, he launched for the senators, on Twitter. In the event of a second defeat, he promised on Saturday that he would withdraw in favor of the Pheu Thai party, the second force in the hemicycle and a member of the pro-democracy coalition.
In addition to the iTV stock case, Pita and Move Forward are accused of wanting to overthrow the monarchy. Their plan to reform the controversial lèse-majesté law, one of the toughest of its kind in the world, has provoked strong reactions from the conservative camp, which accuses them of undermining the kingdom’s traditional values.
(AFP)Show comments
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