Thai coup chief keeps job as prime minister after disputed vote
BANGKOK — For the past five years, Prayuth ChanOcha ruled with absolute power as the head of Thailand’s military junta. Now he’ll lead a coalition with a razor-thin majority against a vengeful opposition tired of being silenced.
Thai lawmakers on Wednesday picked Prayuth to return as prime minister following a disputed election in March, ensuring the military retains influence in a new administration. With the support of a junta-appointed Senate, Prayuth easily beat out prodemocracy candidate Thanathorn Juangroongruangkit.
Prayuth’s return marks a victory for royalist elites in Bangkok, who have used the courts or military to overturn election results for more than a decade to prevent exiled former Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra from running the government. Thaksin’s allies won the most seats in the March election, but were unable to convince enough smaller parties to join them in a coalition.
The military views Thaksin as a threat to Thailand’s royalist establishment, which has long maintained greater influence over the levers of power than elected politicians. About a week after the March election, King Maha Vajiralongkorn revoked Thaksin’s royal decorations because the former prime minister fled Thailand in 2008 after being sentenced to prison, a conviction Thaksin says was politically motivated.
While centralized control paved the way for Thailand’s emergence as a prime manufacturing base in the 1980s, frequent coups and political violence over the past decade have eroded the country’s competitiveness. Potential gridlock from a starkly divided lower house could hinder growth in Southeast Asia’s second-largest economy, which expanded at the weakest pace in the first quarter since 2014 as exports, tourism and public investment moderated.
“There’ll be a lot of bickering and bargaining in the parliament,” said Kevin Hewison, an expert on Thai politics and an emeritus professor at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. “Prayuth tends to get cranky and that could impact the government.”
The hot-headed former army chief is known for lashing out at opponents, and a return to some form of parliamentary democracy will test his patience. Prayuth’s Palang Pracharath, carved out of the junta that seized power in 2014, will lead a 19-party coalition that has a majority of only a handful of seats in the 500member Lower House.
“History suggests that a government of many parties may not last its full term,” said Prajak Kongkirati, head of the government and politics department at Thammasat University in Bangkok. The government’s thinking will be focused on political survival, rather than longterm vision, he said.
PHILADELPHIA — The U.S. State Department is monitoring the investigations into the sudden deaths of three Americans at the same resort in the Dominican Republic.
Miranda Schaup-Werner, 41, a psychotherapist from Allentown, died May 25 “suddenly and inexplicably in her hotel room ... after arriving and having a drink from the inroom mini-bar,” a family spokesman, Jay McDonald, said in a statement to ABC News.
Schaup-Werner was with her husband, Daniel Werner, when she began experiencing physical distress and collapsed in a hotel at the Bahia Principe resort in La Romana, McDonald said.
He told Fox News that Schaub-Werner had been diagnosed with inflammation around her heart 15 years ago, sought treatment for it, and was otherwise healthy.
The resort told Fox News in a statement that the Pennsylvania woman was found unresponsive in her room and “the hotel doctor responded immediately and coordinated her transfer to Hospiten Santo Domingo. Unfortunately, Mrs. Schaup passed away in the room prior.”
On May 30, a couple from Maryland — Nathaniel Edward Holmes, 63, and Cynthia Ann Day, 49 — were found dead in their room in another hotel at the resort, according to news reports. They had arrived on May 25, and posted a photo of themselves together on a boat on Facebook on May 28.
Dominican officials said all three died of respiratory failure and pulmonary edema, according to the news reports. Toxicology reports are pending on the Maryland couple, Dominican police said.
The State Department issued the following statement: “We can confirm the recent deaths of three U.S. citizens in La Romana, the Dominican Republic — Nathaniel Edward Holmes, Cynthia Ann Day and Miranda Schaup-Werner. We offer our sincerest condolences to the families for their loss. The U.S. Embassy is actively monitoring the investigations by Dominican authorities into these tragic deaths. We stand ready to provide assistance as requested.”
Last week, a Delaware woman went public with the story of how she was severely injured in an attack at another Dominican Republic resort in Punta Cana six months ago.
Tammy Lawrence-Daley told 6ABC she was beaten for two hours and dumped in a crawl space. She told the station her injuries included a broken orbital, a broken hand, and nerve damage. She said she has undergone half a dozen surgeries and procedures since the attack.