Thai ruling party meets to choose new candidate for PM

Former prime minister Srettha Thavisin reacts after Thailand’s Constitutional Court ruled to remove him – Copyright AFP Chanakarn Laosarakham

Thanaporn PROMYAMYAI

Thailand’s ruling party meets Thursday to choose a candidate for prime minister after a court dismissed incumbent Srettha Thavisin in an ethics case, deepening the kingdom’s political uncertainty a week after the main opposition party was dissolved.

The kingdom’s top court on Wednesday ruled Srettha, 62, had breached regulations by appointing a cabinet minister with a criminal conviction.

Parliament is scheduled to meet at 10:00 am (0300 GMT) on Friday to vote on a replacement.

The Pheu Thai party will choose one of its two eligible candidates — former justice minister Chaikasem Nitisiri or Paetongtarn Shinawatra, the daughter of former PM Thaksin Shinawatra. 

Party secretary-general Sorawong Thienthong told reporters they would discuss their choice with coalition partners.

Srettha was the third prime minister from Pheu Thai to be kicked out by the Constitutional Court and leaves office after less than a year.

Thai politics has endured two decades of chronic instability marked by coups, street protests, and court orders — much of it energised by the long-running battle between the military and pro-royalist establishment against progressive parties linked to Thaksin Shinawatra.

The case against Srettha was brought by 40 former senators appointed by the military junta that ousted the elected Pheu Thai government in a 2014 coup.

The senate also played a crucial role in blocking the main opposition Move Forward Party (MFP) from forming a government after it won the popular vote in elections last year.

Senators alarmed by MFP’s pledges to reform lese-majeste laws and break up powerful business monopolies refused to endorse its then-leader Pita Limjaroenrat as prime minister and the party was forced into opposition.

The top court last week dissolved the MFP and banned Pita and its main officials from politics for 10 years.

Srettha fell over the appointment of Pichit Chuenban, a former lawyer associated with billionaire Thaksin, the former Manchester City owner and longtime bete noire of Thailand’s conservative elite.

Pichit, sentenced to six months in jail in 2008 for a graft-related offence, quit the cabinet after the case was filed in a bid to save Srettha, but the court pressed ahead with the case.