Thailand’s ruling Pheu Thai party is still seeking to form the next government but is prepared to dissolve parliament, a senior party official said on Tuesday, a move that could trigger a general election.
In a sign of deepening political turmoil as two rival camps vied to form the next government, Pheu Thai Secretary General Sorawong Thienthong said the party was weighing its options between nominating its own candidate Chaikasem Nitisiri for the premiership, or calling a new election.
Sorawong’s remarks came as People’s Party, the biggest force in parliament, met for a second day to discuss who it might back to form the next government, either Pheu Thai, or Bhumjaithai, a renegade party that quit the governing coalition in June and is mounting its own challenge.
“If the People’s Party have the decision to vote for Anutin, we will proceed with the process,” Sorawong told reporters, referring to Bhumjaithai’s leader Anutin Charnvirakul.
“If there is a vote set for prime minister selection, we will submit Chaikasem Nitisiri.”
A court decision last week dismissed Paetongtarn Shinawatra – daughter of billionaire Pheu Thai patriarch Thaksin Shinawatra – due to an ethics violation, touching off a scramble for power between the populist ruling party and Anutin’s Bhumjaithai.
POLITICAL TURMOIL
Her removal was the latest twist in a tumultuous, two-decade battle for power among Thailand’s rival elites, with Paetongtarn the sixth premier from or backed by the billionaire Shinawatra family to be ousted by the military or judiciary and the second in the space of a year.
Chaikasem, 77, a former attorney-general and justice minister with limited cabinet experience, has kept a low profile in politics. He is the sole remaining eligible prime ministerial candidate for Pheu Thai, a once dominant party that has been haemorrhaging support of late.
There are conflicting opinions among law experts in Thailand as to whether a caretaker government has the authority to seek house dissolution.
Sorawong, the government spokesperson and a top aide to the acting prime minister each did not immediately respond to requests for comment from Reuters.
The hugely popular People’s Party, whose predecessor won the 2023 election but was blocked from power by lawmakers allied with the royalist military, said its party’s executives would make the decision on Wednesday on who to back to form the next government.
The party, which has nearly a third of house seats, reiterated on Tuesday that it will not join any government and favours house dissolution.
Amid frenzied speculation that Pheu Thai had already sought house dissolution, Sorawong in a Facebook post later on Tuesday stressed the party had not submitted any request, but it remained an option.
-reuters
