By Thai Newsroom Reporters
THE BHUMJAITHAI under de facto party boss Newin Chidchob will likely succeed in forming a brand-new coalition government, given solid support from no less than 283 MPs who will all cast yea votes for Bhumjaithai leader Anutin Charnvirakul for prime minister, partisan sources said today (Aug.30).
Following yesterday’s ouster of de facto Pheu Thai boss Thaksin Shinawatra’s daughter Paetongtarn Shinawatra as prime minister at the order of the Constitutional Court on grounds of perpetrating conduct in severe breach of ethics during last June’s leaked cellphone chitchat with senior Cambodian leader Hun Sen, the Bhumjaithai have quickly wooed varied parties on either side of the parliament chamber’s aisle to lend solid support in the House of Representatives for the naming of Anutin for prime minister and to become partner of a Bhumjaithai-led coalition government.
Anutin has held talks with leaderships of the People’s, the Palang Pracharath and the Klatham among others in effort to win their support for himself to replace the deposed Paetongtarn for prime minister and to see their respective camps jump onto the Bhumjaithai-led bandwagon of a brand-new coalition except for the People’s who have resolutely vowed to only support the naming of the new head of government from among current partisan candidates without joining the new executive branch or taking a ministerial seat of cabinet.
Anutin confirmed that the People’s precondition for their MPs’ vote of support for his being named prime minister during a special House meeting anticipated as soon as the upcoming Wednesday or Thursday will be wholly met to the extent that he himself will dissolve the House and call a general election in four months after the new coalition government’s policy statement has been delivered at parliament and arrange for a public referendum to be held no later than the date on which the next general election will be held for the people nationwide to decide whether the military-designed constitution of 2017 should be amended as a whole by a Constitution Amendment Committee which is yet to be set up.
The Klatham under de facto party boss Thammanat Prompao will likely join the ultra-conservative Bhumjaithai-led coalition whilst part of the ultra-conservative Ruam Thai Sang Chart led by Suchart Chomklin and the splinter Thai Sang Thai have also jumped onto the bandwagon of Newin’s camp which currently has 69 MPs at command, thus kicking the neo-conservative Thaksin’s camp with 140 MPs into the opposition bloc alongside the reformist People’s with 143 MPs, according to the partisan sources.
The Bhumjaithai-led government could practically become a minority one, given the People’s unfaltering stand to retain their current status as the largest opposition party, however.
For the time being. the Bhumjaithai-led coalition has apparently secured an adequate support from MPs of varied parties including 69 of Newin’s camp, 25 of Thammanat’s camp, 18 of a Palang Pracharath faction under party leader Prawit Wongsuwan, 16 of Suchart’s faction, a dozen renegade Pheu Thai MPs plus six of the Thai Sang Thai. In addition to the People’s 143 MPs, the Bhumjaithai-led coalition will win support from no less than 283 MPs, thus constituting a majority of lawmakers in the House currently accounting for 248.
Acting prime minister Phumtham Wechayachai, largely viewed as a right-hand man for Thaksin, repeatedly announced his camp will still have the majority of MPs endorse the naming of Pheu Thai MP Chaikasem Nitisiri for prime minister but such unilateral claims will be completely false and groundless if the renegade Klatham and Suchart-led faction of the Ruam Thai Sang Chart are no longer staying with the Pheu Thai-led coalition which has barely secured a meagre majority of MPs, resulting in House meetings being repeatedly adjourned due to lack of a quorum.
In another development, the power-playing Thaksin planned to hold a hush-hush talk with Thanathorn Juangroongruangkit, head of the Progressive Movement, to call on the People’s to abort the ongoing Bhumjaithai venture and instead lend their support for the Pheu Thai-led coalition despite the immediate end of Paetongtarn’s rule as a result of yesterday’s court ruling, one partisan source said.
Thanathorn is a former leader of the court-dissolved Future Forward, the original reformist camp from which the People’s have resurrected.
Apparently known to continue to side with Thaksin’s camp are a main faction of 21 Democrat MPs led by party leader Chalermchai Sri-on, 10 Chart Thai Pattana MPs led by party leader Warawut Silpa-archa and nine Prachachart MPs led by House Speaker Wan Noor Mattha, among others.
CAPTIONS:
Top and Front Page: Bhumjaithai leader Anutin Charnvirakul and some party MPs at a press conference. Photo: Amarin TV
First insert: De facto Pheu Thai boss Thaksin Shinawatra and ousted prime minister Paetongtarn Shinawatra. Photo: Amarin TV
Second insert: Thanathorn Juangroongruangkit, head of the Progressive Movement. Photo: Thai Rath
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Paetongtarn ousted as PM by Constitutional Court over unethical, dishonest deal with Hun Sen
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Offered payoffs feared to be the only way to save Paetongtarn
Attorney-General weighing whether to send Thaksin’s lese majeste case to Appellate Court
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