Thailand’s acting Prime Minister Phumtham Wechayachai said on Wednesday that he has proposed to King Vajiralongkorn to dissolve Parliament, amid a process in the chamber to elect the country’s new leader, after the Constitutional Court last week removed leader Paetongtarn Shinawatra.
“Yesterday, I decided to submit a royal petition. Now, we must wait for the democratic and constitutional process to run its course,” Phumtham told the media today at Government House in Bangkok.
The announcement of the interim prime minister comes after the party with the largest parliamentary representation, the reformist People’s Party (PP), announced the day before that it will support the candidate of the opposition Bhumjaithai party, Anutin Charnvirakul, to become the next leader of Thailand.
The PP’s endorsement of Anutin in the process in the House of Representatives to elect the successor to the dismissed Paetongtarn would make this veteran the new Prime Minister of Thailand, although the party would not be part of the possible new Government.
Anutin was Minister of the Interior in Paetongtarn’s Executive and of Health during the covid-19 pandemic, and his political record includes having made Thailand the first country in Asia to end the persecution of marijuana consumption.
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The intention of the interim prime minister, whose party, the Phue Thai, is running Chaikasem Nitisiri (who became Minister of Justice in 2013) as a candidate, is to dissolve the lower house and call elections, for which he needs royal approval.
The PP had to decide who to support, as it is not among the parties that can present their own candidate option.
The reformist formation was founded in August 2024 following the dissolution by a judicial decision of the Move Forward formation, which swept the 2023 elections but could not govern due to the blockade of the previous Senate.
The process of choosing a new Prime Minister of Thailand takes place after the Constitutional Court removed Paetongtarn, daughter of the powerful politician Thaksin Shinwatra, from office for criticizing the role of an Army commander in the historic territorial conflict with Cambodia.
The former prime minister’s criticisms of the military man occurred during a telephone conversation with the influential Cambodian politician Hun Sen, who leaked the call.
