By Thai Newsroom Reporters
THE PALANG PRACHARATH is again disintegrating due to intra-partisan conflict of interest since Palang Pracharath Secretary-General Thammanat Prompao will no longer be given a ministerial seat in an imminent Cabinet lineup.
The third largest coalition partner would likely be split into two sides with one loyal to Palang Pracharath leader Prawit Wongsuwan and the other attached to Thammanat primarily due to conflict of interest.
On a list of four Palang Pracharath ministerial nominees submitted today (Aug. 20) by Prawit to the Pheu Thai, core of a current coalition, Thammanat was not included.
News of his being kept out of the latest cabinet lineup under newly-named Prime Minister Paetongtarn Shinawatra disappointed and upset the Palang Pracharath secretary-general/acting agriculture & cooperatives minister who was inclined to be more practically independent of the party leader than ever.
Less than half the total of 38 Palang Pracharath MPs are personally attached to Thammanat whilst others are still loyal to Prawit, a partisan source said.
Deputy Palang Pracharath leader Chaiwut Thanakhamanusorn was said to replace the Palang Pracharath secretary-general in the new Pheu Thai-led cabinet lineup whilst it remains to be seen in which portfolio he will be seated.
Thammanat was said to have been reshuffled out of the new cabinet amidst fears of the possibility that his being otherwise named a minister could prompt the filing of an ethic-breaking lawsuit against the woman prime minister, daughter of de facto Pheu Thai boss Thaksin Shinawatra, as had been the case of her predecessor Srettha Thavisin who was recently deprived of his prime-ministerial status by the Constitutional Court in an historic impeachment case after he had named a former convict who had previously worked for Thaksin a minister attached to the Prime Minister’s Office.
That Thammanat had been earlier arrested on drug-related charges and sentenced to a jail term in Australia could possibly lead to a similar court verdict to impeach and depose Paetongtarn from power if he was otherwise named a cabinet member again.
Nevertheless, Thammanat might probably look to call on Prawit to have the Palang Pracharath executive board resolve to oust his protege MPs and himself from the coalition party so they could consequently move on to join another one in a 30-day period as provided by law.
Over the last few years, Thammanat had led an exodus of 16 MPs from the Palang Pracharath to a little-known Thai Economics but he and his proteges finally returned to Prawit’s camp last year.
CAPTIONS:
Top: Palang Pracharath leader Prawit Wongsuwan, left, and secretary-general Thammanat Prompao, right. Photo: Thai Rath
Front Page: Thammanat Prompao. Photo: Naewna
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