MONARCHISTS, GENERALS DENY MOVE FORWARD

Pita Limjaroenrat: Thai reformist leader who won election will not be PM

Derek Cai & Thanyarat Doksone - in Singapore & Bangkok
Wed, July 19, 2023 

Supporters cheered as Pita Limjaroenrat left the parliamentary chamber after being suspended

Thai reformist Pita Limjaroenrat's bid to be nominated prime minister has ended, prompting outrage from his supporters after he won May's election.

The 42-year-old was first dramatically suspended from parliament by the constitutional court, forcing him to leave the debating chamber.

Lawmakers then agreed to block a second vote on whether he should be PM.

The Move Forward party leader had swept to victory in the general election as voters rejected years of military rule.

But to seal his victory, he needed the approval of parliament - which he failed to secure last week, plunging the country into political limbo.

The constitutional court must now decide whether he should be disqualified from parliament for owning shares in a long-defunct media company.

"I would like to say goodbye until we meet again," Mr Pita said, raising his fist as he left the floor of the assembly to cheers from party allies.

Mr Pita, a Harvard graduate and former tech executive, won on the promise of major reforms, including a pledge to amend lese-majeste, Thailand's strict royal defamation laws, pitting him against the unelected senate and other conservatives who say he poses a threat to the monarch.

Move Forward supporters outside parliament have seen their hopes for change scuppered

Outside parliament, Move Forward supporters wondered what the point of the election had been.

"Why ask people to go to the polls? Why don't you just pick someone from your families to be the prime minister?" asked one man, AFP news agency reported.

"Pita is not wrong at all. He did everything right," a woman said.

Before he was forced to leave parliament, Mr Pita had said he would stop working as an MP until the court made its decision.

"I think Thailand has changed and will never be the same since 14 May," he said, referring to the date of his election victory.

"The people have won halfway, there's another half to go."

Uphill battle


Mr Pita needed the votes of more than half of the 749 members in parliament's two chambers to become prime minister.

Last week, he secured only 324 votes, 51 short of the required 375. He had a clear majority from elected MPs in the lower house, but not from the upper house.

He always faced an uphill battle, as there was little evidence that the 249 upper house senators would support him. They were all installed by the military leaders of a 2006 coup as a brake on any democratic outcome that the military and royalists were uncomfortable with.

Move Forward is popular among young Thai voters who wanted to end nearly a decade of conservative military rule.

Art Chaturongkul, a 39-year-old living in Bangkok, said he and fellow supporters are deeply concerned as they see Mr Pita as representing their voices in the parliament.

"I'm filled with mixed emotions. Utter rage, frustration, and disappointment. It feels like a setback to the democratic process," he had earlier told the BBC.

Move Forward has formed a coalition government with seven other parties, including Pheu Thai, the second most popular party in the May election.

Many young voters switched to voting for Move Forward because Pheu Thai had been unwilling to rule out doing deals with the military.

Pro-establishment campaigners have sought to block Mr Pita from taking the reins of power after the shock election results in May.

Two cases have been filed against him in the conservative-leaning Constitutional Court. Alongside the one for which he was suspended, the other complaint claims Move Forward's proposal to amend lese-majeste laws - which have seen hundreds of critics of the monarchy jailed - amounts to an attempt to an overthrow Thailand's entire political order.

There is a precedent for what is happening now. In the 2019 elections, Future Forward - the predecessor to Move Forward - was dissolved by the Constitutional Court after it was found to have violated electoral rules.

Since 2008, it has also dismissed three PMs aligned with former premier Thaksin Shinawatra, who was toppled by a 2006 coup.

Ironically his party, Pheu Thai - which has been on the receiving end of nearly all of the Constitutional Court's rulings - is now poised to benefit from this latest ruling against its coalition partner.

There is no love lost between Pheu Thai and Move Forward, particularly as the former has taken the latter's mantle as a champion of democracy.

But despite winning the election, Mr Pita may have to accept not only giving up the top job, but having no place at all in the new government.

Additional reporting by Jonathan Head

Turmoil in Thailand as rivals derail election winner's PM bid






Updated Wed, July 19, 2023
By Chayut Setboonsarng and Panarat Thepgumpanat

BANGKOK (Reuters) -The leader of Thailand's election-winning Move Forward Party met fresh obstacles in his prime ministerial bid on Wednesday, as a court suspended him as a lawmaker and rivals successfully scuttled his re-nomination in parliament.

U.S.-educated liberal Pita Limjaroenrat has an extremely difficult path to the top job and must overcome fierce resistance from a royalist military at odds with his party's anti-establishment ambitions.

After more than seven hours of debate on a challenge to Pita's candidacy before a planned parliamentary vote on Wednesday, lawmakers voided his nomination, with opponents arguing a motion for him to be endorsed as premier had already been rejected when he was defeated in last week's vote.

As the debate ensued, the Constitutional Court separately announced Pita had been suspended as a lawmaker over an allegation he violated election rules by holding shares in a media firm, taking on its second case against him in six days.

The suspension does not bar Pita from running for premier but it was not immediately clear whether his eight-party alliance would seek to re-nominate him, by filing a different motion.

The 42-year-old had told Reuters in an interview on Tuesday that he was expecting "pre-planned" obstacles, describing efforts by the establishment to stop him as like a "broken record".

Thailand has been run by a caretaker administration since March and 65 days have passed since Move Forward's stunning triumph over military-backed parties in a May election, in what was widely considered a clear public rejection of nine years of government controlled by generals.

"Thailand is not the same since May 14. We have come halfway from the people's victory and there is another half to go," a smiling Pita told the house as he acknowledged the court's suspension order, receiving fist-bumps and applause.

POWER STRUGGLE

Wednesday's drama was the latest twist in a two-decade battle for power between elected parties and Thailand's conservative military establishment, which has seen political bans, court interventions, two coups and huge, at times violent street protests.

A constitution drafted by the military after a 2014 coup and skewed in its favour ensured that Pita was blocked in the first vote by the junta-appointed Senate, which has served as a bulwark against elected politicians and can effectively torpedo attempts to form governments.

Hundreds of Pita's supporters gathered peacefully in Bangkok to protest against the efforts to stop him, some carrying signs denouncing senators.

"I feel angry. They didn't respect the people's will," said protester Wilasini Sakaew, 21. "They didn't listen to the voices of 14 million people."

The progressive Move Forward ran a disruptive election campaign in which they mastered social media to target and win over millions of urban and young voters, promising bold institutional reforms to upend the conservative status quo.

But its agenda has put it on a collision course with powerful, conservative interests, demonstrated by the legal cases against him and a determined effort by rival legislators from the outgoing, army-backed government to keep him at bay.

After the vote to void Pita's nomination, senior officials from Move Forward and alliance partner Pheu Thai said they would arrange a meeting to decide their next move.

The planned prime ministerial vote was expected to be Pita's last, having announced that he would step aside if he fails and let political heavyweight Pheu Thai field its candidate in a third round.

"It is now clear that in the current system, winning public approval is not enough to run the country," Pita posted on Instagram during the debate.

(Reporting by Panarat Thepgumpanat, Panu Wongcha-um and Chayut Setboonsarng; Writing by Martin Petty; Editing by Robert Birsel)

Thai Court Suspends PM Hopeful Pita’s Status as Lawmaker



Anuchit Nguyen
Tue, July 18, 2023

(Bloomberg) -- A Thai court Wednesday suspended Pita Limjaroenrat’s status as a lawmaker, in the latest roadblock to the pro-democracy leader’s quest to become the country’s next prime minister.

The Constitutional Court suspended Pita as a lawmaker, while accepting to hear a case brought on by the poll panel for a full disqualification. The Election Commission had previously found the Move Forward Party’s leader to be in breach of election rules.

--With assistance from Napat Kongsawad.


US concerned about developments in legal system after Thailand election

 Thailand's parliament votes for a new prime minister

Mon, July 17, 2023
By Simon Lewis

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The United States is concerned about developments in Thailand's legal system, State Department spokesperson Matthew Miller said on Monday, after two separate complaints against the leader of the party that won the most seats in a May 14 election.

Thailand's parliament is preparing a second vote on Wednesday on whether Pita Limjaroenrat, leader of the progressive Move Forward party, can become prime minister.

An initial vote last week for Pita - who wants to remove the military from politics and dismantle business monopolies, among other changes - was thwarted by a Senate appointed by the royalist military following a 2014 coup.

U.S. officials have said little about the post-election developments in Thailand, a longstanding military ally in a region where Washington is wary of China's growing influence.

Miller, asked at a regular press briefing about the situation in Thailand, said Washington does not have a preferred outcome in the Thai election, but supports a process that reflects the will of the Thai people.

"We are very closely watching the post-election developments - that includes the recent developments in the legal system, which are of concern," Miller said.

Thailand's Constitutional Court has accepted a complaint against Pita and Move Forward over a plan to change a law that prohibits insults against the royal family. The election commission has also recommended the same court disqualify Pita over ownership of shares in a media company in violation of electoral rules.

The cases have raised concerns the court could disqualify Pita from office or dissolve Move Forward, as it did in 2020 with the party's predecessor Future Forward.

Asked to comment on those possibilities, Miller said he would not "speculate about how we might react to events that have not yet occurred" but repeated that recent developments were of concern.

(Reporting by Simon Lewis; editing by Grant McCool)