Minority government would be short-lived: Varawut

By Thai Newsroom Reporters

A MINORITY GOVERNMENT would almost certainly be a short-lived one due to lack of adequate support from the legislative branch, said Chart Thai Pattana leader Varawut Silpa-archa today (May 6).

The House of Representatives would very likely be dissolved before yearend if a minority government was somehow set up after the May 14 general election because they could not practically run the country for long, Varawut confirmed.

His comments were apparently made in response to the sustained possibility that caretaker prime minister Prayut Chan-o-cha who is contesting to retain power under the Ruam Thai Sang Chart banners might manipulate to have himself named head of a post-election government, given support from a minimum of 126 MPs in addition to an army of pro-Prayut senators.

A partisan contestant for prime minister is legally obliged to secure yea votes from more than half the total of 500 MPs and 250 senators combined, or at least 376 votes, to be successfully named one.

Nevertheless, Varawut confirmed that his party is completely opposed to the setting up of a minority government which, he said, cannot practically run the country due to lack of support from a majority of MPs, thus prompting the dissolution of the House in a six-to-eight-month time to hold a new general election at the cost of the taxpayer’s money.

For instance, a budget bill prepared by a minority government will certainly be given nay votes from the majority of MPs who may effortlessly lodge a censure debate against the head of such an executive branch at any given time, according to the Chart Thai Pattana leader.

Thammasat University vice-rector Prinya Thaewanarumitkul has earlier said a minority government could possibly exist with the number of supportive MPs accounting for some 10 to 20 short of becoming a majority one as had been the case following the 2019 election.

A possible minority government under a prolonged Prayut leadership could be practically short of over 100 MPs – an unbecoming phenomenon which would otherwise spoil democratic rule under which a post-election government should be set up with solid support from a majority of MPs and not the other way around, according to the Thammasat vice-rector.

The Pheu Thai, Move Forward and a few other anti-Prayut camps are largely speculated to combinedly have more than half the total 500 MPs from the May 14 election, thus rendering a fewer number of MPs being left on the other side to endorse a minority government.

Prinya has earlier suggested a majority government only be set up to comply with most voters’ decisions as well as to promote democratic rule and political stability.

The academic called on the unelected senators to not cast a yea vote for head of a minority government for whatever hidden reasons.

CAPTION:

Top and Front Page: Chart Thai Pattana leader Varawut Silpa-archa campaigning at his party’s base Suphan Buri today, May 6, 2023. Photos: Thai Rath

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