People to rise up against senators-picked PM: Thanathorn

By Thai Newsroom Reporters

PROGRESSIVE MOVEMENT leader Thanathorn Juangroongruangkit forecast today (Dec.18) the people nationwide will likely rise up against a head of government who might be decisively endorsed by unelected senators in spite of an otherwise inadequate support from elected MPs.

Addressing Move Forward Party members during a partisan seminar, Thanathorn predicted that the people will no longer tolerate the possible event in which a partisan candidate for head of a post-election government finally grab the top post of the executive branch with an overwhelming support of the 250 senators as had been the case of Prayut Chan-o-cha having been named head of a Palang Pracharath-led coalition government after the 2019 general election.

“The people nationwide among whom I myself will be one will likely rise up against such an unjust possibility in which a prime minister might again be picked by a decisive vote of the senators,” Thanathorn said.

Thanathorn, who had earlier led the Future Forward Party which has been dissolved by court and practically turned into the Move Forward Party, doubted that the unelected senators, all of whom had been handpicked by the 2014 coup junta under leadership of the then-army chief Prayut, will ever abstain from voting for head of a post-election government since they earlier voted him into premiership alongside the Palang Pracharath-led coalition MPs.

Only the partisan contender who may finally secure endorsement from a majority of the 500 elected MPs after the next general election be named prime minister as far as democratic rule is primarily concerned, according to the Progressive Movement leader.

“The people nationwide may join in sort of a social agenda under which those senators may be made ashamed of themselves given the unjust power to pick a prime minister,” Thanathorn said.

Thanathorn confirmed that the Move Forward will certainly join hands with the Pheu Thai to refresh legislation by way of constitution amendment to deprive the senators of the highly contentious power to pick a prime minister alongside the MPs though similar bids had been earlier aborted at parliament.

He apparently referred to possibilities of either the current premier or Palang Pracharath boss Prawit Wongsuwan being named a partisan contender and finally given a decisive vote from the senators to land the premiership despite an otherwise inadequate support from the MPs after the nationwide election, anticipated early next year.

Though Prawit was not part of the Prayut-led coup junta, the Palang Pracharath boss reportedly managed to name many of the unelected senators, given a “fraternal” relationship between the both of them as fellow ex-army chiefs.

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Progressive Movement leader Thanathorn Juangroongruangkit. Top photo: Thai Rath, Front Page photo: Naewna

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