BANGKOK - More than 100 protesters gathered in downtown Bangkok on Friday, a day after Thailand’s top prime minister candidate Pita Limjaroenrat failed to win enough votes from Parliament to assume the post.
Demonstrators slammed the senators for not respecting voters’ wishes and threatened to ramp up protests should a second parliamentary vote slated for Wednesday fail to install the candidate supported by a majority coalition.
Roaring into a microphone, protester Seksit Yaemsanguansak, 25, urged everyone present to be ready to hit the streets in a week’s time.
“Let them know when 26 million head out how much of an affair it would be,” he said, referring to the number of votes secured by the eight-party coalition supporting Mr Pita’s bid.
The setback for Mr Pita, the 42-year-old Move Forward Party (MFP) leader, means South-east Asia’s second-largest economy is in limbo until a way is found to let winners of the May 14 general election form a new government.
Holding banners outside the Bangkok Art and Culture Centre, protesters demanded that the senators step down.
“The senators did not respect our votes,” 17-year-old Anna Annanon told The Straits Times.
If the senators did not quit, she said, protests would emerge in every part of the country.
Junta-era rules allow an appointed 250-member Senate – now numbering 249 after one resignation – to take part in selecting the prime minister after an election.
This conservative, pro-establishment bloc was the biggest hurdle for Mr Pita, as most of the members either abstained from voting or opposed his premiership bid on Thursday.
Despite his coalition holding a comfortable majority of 312 seats in the 500-seat Lower House, it fell 51 votes short of the 375 votes needed to secure the premiership.
Although the second vote on the premiership is scheduled, analysts are not hopeful that Mr Pita would do any better should he be nominated again.
This is despite the fact that the MFP was the best performer in the election, winning 151 seats compared with the runner-up Pheu Thai party, which bagged 141 seats.
https://news.google.com/rss/articles/CBMieGh0dHBzOi8vd3d3LnN0cmFpdHN0aW1lcy5jb20vYXNpYS9zZS1hc2lhL3Byb3Rlc3RlcnMtaW4tYmFuZ2tvay1zbGFtLXNlbmF0b3JzLWZvci1zaW5raW5nLXRvcC1jYW5kaWRhdGUtcGl0YS1mb3ItcG0tcG9zdNIBAA?oc=5
2023-07-14 13:55:00Z
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