Thammanat won’t return to Prawit’s camp as long as Prayut remains in power

By Thai Newsroom Reporters

THAI ECONOMIC PARTY leader Thammanat Prompao will definitely not return alongside 15 MPs under his command to the ruling Palang Pracharath Party as long as Prime Minister Prayut Chan-o-cha remains in power, confirmed a Thai Economic MP today (Oct. 6).

Thammanat, who was deposed from the Prayut cabinet following last year’s censure/no-confidence motion, will not return to the largest coalition partner where he had earlier acted as secretary-general as speculated last month during which Deputy Prime Minister-cum-Palang Pracharath party leader Prawit Wongsuwan had performed as caretaker prime minister, Thai Economic MP Boonsing Warinrak said.

Now that Prayut has been allowed by the Constitutional Court to prolong his rule after he had been temporarily suspended by court from performing as head of government, it will be very unlikely for Thammanat, an MP of Payao, and the 15 other Thai Economic MPs to return to the Palang Pracharath Party, according to Boonsing, who concurrently acts as registrar of Thammanat’s party.

Thammanat has apparently remained at odds with Prayut since the former was held accountable for an alleged hush-hush plot among certain coalition and splinter-party MPs to press the latter to step down or dissolve the House of Representatives, following the no-confidence vote which he had barely survived. A few days later, the former Palang Pracharath secretary-general was deposed as deputy agriculture & cooperatives minister, prompting him to lead an exodus of 21 MPs including himself from Prawit’s camp earlier this year.

Meanwhile, it remains to be seen whether Thammanat and those MPs under his command will return to the Pheu Thai Party and contest the next general election under the largest opposition party’s tickets, the Thai Economic MP said.

A general caucus of the Thai Economic Party is scheduled for upcoming Monday to pick new members of the party’s executive board whilst Thammanat might probably make it known to the public as to whether he may decide to keep his own opposition camp aloat and vie for MPs in the nationwide election or lead another defection of his partisan followers to the Pheu Thai Party to which most of them had belonged before they defected to Prawit’s camp in the 2019 election.

Thammanat and several other Thai Economic MPs are more or less expected to get reelected in some northern and upper central constituencies in the next race to parliament.

CAPTIONS:

Top: Prime Minister Prayut Chan-o-cha, right, and Thai Economic party leader Thammanat Prompao, left. Photo: Workpointtoday.com

Front Page: Thai Economic leader Thammanat Prompao. Photo: Matichon Weekly

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