Today , in the first round of voting in parliament, a majority of elected MPs in Thailand voted for Pita Limjaroenrat, from the Move Forward Party, to be Prime Minister. He gained 311 to 148 votes, with 40 abstentions. The elected parliament has 500 seats. Even when the military-appointed Senators were included, as stipulated by the constitution, he still won by 324 to 182 votes.
But there were 159 abstentions among the non-elected Senators. These were tactical abstentions to make sure Pita didn’t make the 375 votes required by the military constitution to become Prime Minister.
These tactical abstentions were a cowardly way that the 159 senators could oppose the will of the electorate without directly “appearing to” oppose Pita.
The neo-liberal Move Forward Party came top of the poll in May with 151 seats. Together with Taksin Shinawat’s Pua Thai Party—which led the military overthrown coalition government in 2014—the two anti-military parties had 292 seats in the 500-seat house of representatives. They have also managed to gain support from a number of small parties.
The two military-run parties only managed to scrape together 76 seats.
The military have most of the 250 appointed senators on their side.
The senate and the house of representatives sit together to choose the Prime Minister. This, together with other laws brought in by the military junta, is frustrating the democratic process.
The election process under the military constitution has been painfully slow and bureaucratic. Elections were held on 14th May 2023, yet it is only on the 13th July that the first vote could take place in parliament!!
The reactionary military appointed senators and their allies, used as their excuse to oppose the Move Forward Party, the fact that the party has indicated that it wants to carry out some weak reforms to the authoritarian Lèse-majesté law.
The law is designed to protect all the conservatives, especially the military, by associating any criticism with an insult against the monarchy.
The present Thai king is an obnoxious playboy who prefers to live with his harem in Germany.
Uglytruth-Thailand 