By Thai Newsroom Reporters
MOVE FORWARD LEADER PITA Limjaroenrat today (May 17) cautioned those senators who might probably stand in the way of popular consensus manifested in Sunday’s general election will certainly have a price to pay.
During an interview online with a CNN correspondent, Pita suggested all 250 senators seriously take into account the consensus shown in the nationwide election by some 25 million voters who have brought the Move Forward a monumental victory as the largest elected party and the first-served opportunity for him to set up a 311 MPs-strong coalition government with himself being righteously bound to be named prime minister.
Pita said a voting bloc among the military-appointed senators against the consensus of most people who have gone to the polls on Sunday will not be able to keep him from taking the helm of a coalition government, given such overwhelming popular support.
“Those senators will have a price to pay. The cost of going against the 25 million voters’ consensus will be very heavy,” Pita said without elaborating.
Nevertheless, Pita said the Move Forward had been prepared to communicate and explain everything pertaining to their campaign policies to the senators and to minimise risks of engaging in a possible struggle between a majority of the elected MPs and the military-appointed senators over the naming of him for prime minister.
The Move Forward leader remarked that the unity of the senators will not be the same as when they had cast a unanimous vote to endorse coup junta-turned-prime minister Prayut Chan-o-cha as head of a Palang Pracharath-led coalition government following the 2019 election.
His comments were apparently made in response to sustained speculation that most of the unelected senators will likely abstain from voting on a motion to name him for prime minister in a joint House/Senate session only to make it short of adequate support among the legislators.
The military-designed constitution calls for the naming of a partisan candidate for prime minister to secure yea votes from more than half the combined total of 500 MPs and 250 senators or at least 376 votes.
The Move Forward-led coalition government which already has 311 MPs on their side will need additional yea votes from at least 65 senators to successfully endorse Pita for prime minister.
The Move Forward-led, seven-party coalition includes the Pheu Thai with 141 MPs, the Prachachart with 9 MPs, the Thai Sang Thai with 6 MPs and a trio of splinter parties with one MP each, namely the Thai Liberal, the Fair Party and the Palang Sangkhom Mai, in addition to the 152 Move Forward MPs.
CAPTIONS:
Top: Move Forward leader Pita Limjaroenrat and Pheu Thai leader Chonlanan Srikaew, centre, together with the leaders of five other parties that are part of the tentative coalition government at the entrance of a ritzy restaurant where they held talks today, May 17, 2023. Photo: Naewna
Front Page: Move Forward leader Pita Limjaroenrat. Photo: Sanook.com
3 Replies to “Senators’ bloc against voters’ consensus will have a price to pay: Pita”