THAI OPPOSITION NOT GIVING UP

Anti-junta parties seek to block junta from retaining power

AN ALLIANCE of Thai anti-junta parties is not giving up on forming the next government and blocking the ruling junta from retaining power following a disputed March election, a leader of a key member party said on Wednesday.

Thailand’s March 24 election pitted the pro-army Palang

Pracharat party, which seeks to keep junta leader Prayuth Chanocha in power, against the Democratic Front of seven parties that wanted the military out of politics.

Results published last week showed Palang Pracharat winning 115 seats in the 500-member lower House of Representatives. Along with Senate votes and allies, this could be enough to form the government.

The opposition alliance won 245 lower house seats. But after what he called “a definitely not free and not fair election”, the anti-junta Future Forward Party chief Thanathorn Juangroongruangkit, said all hope was not lost.

“For anti-junta parties, the effort to form the new government is still there. There is no giving up, no white flag at the moment,” Thanathorn said during an event at the Foreign Correspondents’ Club of Thailand.

“Anything is still possible.”

His comments came a day after Thailand published an official list of 250 senators, who were appointed by the junta and will vote with the House of Representatives to choose the next prime minister.

The list showed more than a third have military or police backgrounds and nearly half have existing ties with the junta, which seized power in a 2014 coup.

Electoral rules make it nearly impossible for the opposition to overcome the Senate’s vote to form the government under a post-coup constitution ratified in 2017, which was criticised as entrenching military influence in Thai politics.

If all 250 senators vote the same way, Prayuth’s party, whose allies hold 19 seats, will have just over the 376 required in the combined House-Senate vote to approve him as prime minister.

“If we could form a strong, solid government in the lower house, the senators won’t vote against it. The pressure is on them if they vote against the voice of the people, and I don’t think they have the courage to do that,” Thanathorn said. “We lose this election but we’re not losing the game. This is a long journey.”