By Thai Newsroom Reporters
PRIME MINISTER PAETONGTARN Shinawatra confirmed today (Aug. 23) the whole Palang Pracharath will continue to be part of the current Pheu Thai-led coalition government.
The woman prime minister, daughter of de facto Pheu Thai boss Thaksin Shinawatra, told reporters the third largest coalition partner led by Prawit Wongsuwan will still be one of the coalition partners with a list of four partisan nominees already submitted for ministerial seats under a new cabinet lineup.
Paetongtarn apparently dampened speculation that the Palang Pracharath would probably be split into two factions of MPs due to intra-partisan conflict of interest with one being loyal to Palang Pracharath secretary-general Thammanat Prompao and the other to the party leader.
The list of the four Palang Pracharath nominees for ministers has remained unchanged from a previous coalition government, including acting deputy prime minister-cum-natural resources & environment minister Patcharawat Wongsuwan, acting deputy public health minister Santi Prompan, acting deputy agriculture & cooperatives minister Attakorn Sirilatthayakorn and the acting agriculture & cooperatives Thammanat.
But Thammanat might probably be denied a ministerial seat in the Paetongtarn I cabinet for fear that his previous conduct could possibly be deemed retroactively as “unethical”, given his having been arrested on drug-trafficking charges and sentenced by Australia’s court to several months in jail.
The Pheu Thai, core of the current coalition, has assigned the Council of State to conduct thorough examinations into personal backgrounds of all nominees to assume ministerial seats in the new Pheu Thai-led cabinet.
Nevertheless, it remains to be seen whether the de facto Pheu Thai boss may decide to have the Palang Pracharath replace Thammanat with somebody else sooner than later if the Palang Pracharath secretary-general is ultimately deemed unsuitable for a ministerial seat in the new cabinet lineup.
The de facto Pheu Thai boss had earlier expressed frustrations at Prawit’s having allegedly managed behind-the-scenes to have a group of 40 senators file an impeachment lawsuit against former Pheu Thai-attached prime minister Srettha Thavisin.
Paetongtarn has earlier remarked the new coalition government will not repeat the mistake earlier made by a previous one which had seen her predecessor Srettha deposed of power on grounds of severely breaching the coup junta-designed constitution and code of political ethics by naming a former convict/former lawyer, namely Pichit Chuenban, a minister attached to the Prime Minister’s Office, among others, in a cabinet lineup earlier this year.
Thaksin had allegedly pressed for the contentious naming of his former lawyer which culminated in the ouster of the real estate mogul-turned-prime minister quietly pushed to power by his sister/fugitive former prime minister Yingluck Shinawatra.
CAPTIONS:
Top and Front Page: Prime Minister Paetongtarn Shinawatra.
Insert: Palang Pracharath leader Prawit Wongsuwan. All photos: Thai Rath
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