Thailand’s ruling party seeks new election as a way out of political crisis

BANGKOK (AP) — Thailand, which has been under a caretaker government since last week, saw competing efforts to resolve its political crisis on Wednesday, as the country’s main opposition party agreed to support its rival to be the next prime minister while the party in power said it wants a new election.

The Pheu Thai party, which heads the caretaker government, announced it was asking the country’s king to dissolve Parliament and call a new poll instead of having the current House of Representatives vote for a new prime minister.

No date has yet been set for a vote in Parliament, nor was it clear if the king would endorse dissolution.

The Constitutional Court last week dismissed Paetongtarn Shinawatra as prime minister for breaching ethics laws in a phone call with Cambodia’s Senate President Hun Sen about tensions over competing claims along their border, which erupted into a deadly five-day armed conflict in July.

King Maha Vajiralongkorn alone is empowered to dissolve Parliament. However, the Council of State, which advises the government on legal matters, suggested that a caretaker prime minister cannot call for dissolution unless a vote for a new prime minister reaches a deadlock.

The opposition People’s Party, the biggest party in Parliament, announced Wednesday morning that its lawmakers would vote to appoint Anutin Charnvirakul, leader of the Bhumjaithai party, as the next prime minister.

People’s Party leader Natthaphong Ruengpanyawut said that the Pheu Thai party had failed to govern effectively in its two years in power.

However, its support is contingent on conditions specified in an agreement signed by Anutin, including that the prospective new government must dissolve the House of Representatives within four months and call a general election.

An Anutin-led government would also commit to organizing a referendum on constitutional amendments to allow the drafting of a new constitution by an elected constituent assembly. The People’s Party has long sought changes in the constitution — which was imposed during a military government — to make it more democratic.

Acting Prime Minister Phumtham Wechayachai, who asked for a royal decree to dissolve Parliament, warned of economic repercussions of a prolonged political crisis. “With all of these problems, our lawmakers think we should return power to the people and let the people decide,” he said.

The People’s Party, then operating under the name the Move Forward Party, had won the most seats in the 2023 election, but was kept from taking power when a joint vote of the House and the Senate failed to approve its candidate. Senators, who were appointed by a military government and were strong supporters of Thailand’s royalist conservative establishment, voted against the progressive party because they opposed its policy of seeking reforms to the monarchy.

The Pheu Thai party then had one of its candidates, real estate executive Srettha Thavisin, approved as prime minister to lead a coalition government. But he served just a year before the Constitutional Court dismissed him from office for ethical violations.

Srettha’s replacement Paetongtarn, former Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra’s daughter, also lasted just a year in office. But even before she was forced out, her government was greatly weakened when Anutin’s’s Bhumjaithai Party abandoned her coalition right after her controversial call in June with Cambodia’s Hun Sen. Its withdrawal left Pheu Thai’s coalition with just a tiny and unstable majority in Parliament.