[BANGKOK] Thailand’s parliament is set on Friday to vote in a right-wing tycoon as prime minister, ousting the nation’s dominant political dynasty from office after their figurehead was sacked by court order.
Since 2023 elections, the Pheu Thai party of the powerful Shinawatra family has monopolised Thailand’s top office, but a court ruling last week saw dynasty heiress Paetongtarn Shinawatra sacked from the post.
Rushing into the power vacuum, construction magnate Anutin Charnvirakul has secured backing from enough opposition blocs to likely give him a comfortable majority in the fractured lower house.
Voting is expected any time from around 10.00 am (0300 GMT) in the parliament building constructed by his family firm.
“It’s normal to feel excited,” Anutin told a scrum of reporters as he arrived for the vote.
Anutin, 58, has previously served as deputy prime minister, interior minister and health minister – but is perhaps most famous for delivering on a promise in 2022 to legalise cannabis.
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Charged with the tourist-dependent kingdom’s Covid-19 response, he accused Westerners of spreading the virus and was forced to apologise after a backlash.
The Shinawatra clan have been a mainstay of Thai politics for the past two decades, cultivating a populist brand and jousting with the pro-military, pro-monarchy establishment.
But they have been increasingly bedevilled by legal and political setbacks, the felling of Paetongtarn another heavy blow.
Dynasty in flight
Dynasty patriarch Thaksin Shinawatra flew out of the country in the hours ahead of the parliamentary vote, bound for Dubai where he said he will “visit friends” and seek medical treatment.
The Supreme Court is due on Tuesday to rule whether he should have benefitted from a prison early release scheme.
While his guilt is not the subject of the case, some analysts say the verdict could see him jailed. Thaksin said on social media he will return to attend the court date “in person”.
Anutin once backed the Shinawatra’s Pheu Thai coalition, but abandoned it this summer in apparent outrage over Paetongtarn’s conduct during a border row with neighbouring Cambodia.
Thailand’s Constitutional Court found on Aug 29 that conduct breached ministerial ethics and fired her after only a year in power.
Going it alone, Anutin has gained the crucial 143-seat backing of the largest opposition People’s Party – but only on the condition that parliament is dissolved within four months for fresh elections.
Nonetheless, with reliable support from his Bhumjaithai Party – the third largest in parliament – and a smattering of other allies he looks set to take the helm.
The Shinawatra’s Pheu Thai party is still governing in a caretaker capacity and made a last-ditch effort to forestall Friday’s vote by requesting the palace dissolve parliament.
Royal officials rejected the bid, according to acting prime minister Phumtham Wechayachai, citing “disputed legal issues” around Pheu Thai’s ability to make such a move as an interim administration.
With the ballot due, Pheu Thai has pledged to put forward its own candidate for prime minister – Chaikasem Nitisiri, who served as justice minister under a previous Shinawatra prime minister.
“It does not matter if we win or lose the vote,” party secretary general Sorawong Thienthong told AFP, striking a fatalistic tone on Thursday. AFP
