By Thai Newsroom Reporters
Updated at 7 p.m., Oct. 13, 2026
THE “INDEPENDENT” Klatham under de facto party boss/leader Thammanat Prompao is expected to cast votes of confidence for Prime Minister Anutin Charnvirakul and all other Bhumjaithai-attached members of cabinet targeted under a censure motion, given possibility that the Pheu Thai, the second largest coalition partner under de facto party boss/former prime minister Thaksin Shinawatra, might quietly revolt and vote otherwise.
Under volatile political circumstances, de facto Bhumjaithai boss Newin Chidchob would be considerably inclined to allow the Klatham, viewed as an “independent” party currently unattached to either side of the House chamber’s aisle, to get onto the Bhumjaithai bandwagon of government again after the censure debate has been held between later this month and early next and followed by no-confidence votes supposedly cast by the People’s-led opposition bloc and confidence votes supposedly cast by coalition camps, according to partisan sources.
Thammanat’s camp, recently kicked out of the opposition bloc, had not endorsed the censure motion jointly filed by the People’s, Democrats and opposition splinter parties, against 18 members of cabinet mostly attached to Newin’s camp, including the prime minister who concurrently acts as interior minister and leader of the core of the coalition government.
The Klatham’s anticipated votes of confidence for all targeted members of cabinet would be decidedly necessary for sheer survival of the Bhumjaithai-led coalition government because the Pheu Thai could possibly abstain from either voting for or against them following the marathon censure debate, the partisan sources said.
Thaksin could possibly instruct all Pheu Thai MPs to ironically abstain from voting whilst talking Thammanat into denying the opportunity to jump onto the post-censure, Bhumjaithai bandwagon of government supposedly to replace the Pheu Thai so that the prime minister would be unavoidably pressed to step down and put an end to the “Blue” regime, they said.
Given previous close, personal ties, Thaksin and Thammanat might probably hold a tete-a-tete talk to mutually agree to the extent that a Pheu Thai-led coalition government be resurrected without Newin’s camp anymore following the censure debate primarily in regard to the alleged Bhumjaithai involvement in the 2024 senatorial rigging conspiracy and the Bhumjaithai cabinet’s alleged failures and incompetence in running the country.
The prime minister is legally prohibited from dissolving the House of Representatives to call a general election after a censure motion has been formally filed but he could legally do so after the post-debate votes have been cast with the confidence votes outnumbering the no-confidence votes. On the other hand, any censured members of cabinet including the prime minister will be immediately deprived of their executive status in government if the number of no-confidence votes exceeds half the total number of MPs. They will remain completely intact if the votes come out the other way around.
If the Pheu Thai MPs abstained from voting after the censure debate and eventually withdrew from the coalition government, the Bhumjaithai would automatically become a minority government with less than half the total number of MPs accounting for 250 as constitutionally required of one with simple-majority support despite sustained, yet-inadequate endorsement from several splinter camps.
Meanwhile, former Red Shirt leader Jatuporn Prompan said Thaksin would return to engaging in power play albeit in surreptitious fashion behind the current, volatile political situation with the possibility of pulling the Pheu Thai out of the Bhumjaithai-led government and then setting up a Pheu Thai-led one instead since he recently filed a fresh petition to the Committee on Promotion of Peaceful Society in pursuit of retroactive, absolute amnesty from all politically-motivated lawsuits filed in court against him either in the past or at present time.
But the committee chaired by Deputy Prime Minister Pakorn Nilprapan would likely reject the former prime minister’s petition on grounds that none of his past and present cases be by any means deemed as politically-motivated ones to otherwise warrant amnesty including the lese majeste lawsuit earlier filed against him and forwarded by the Office of the Attorney-General to the Appellation Court.
Thaksin might probably use the anticipated rejection by Pakorn’s panel over his latest petition for such retroactive amnesty as a lame excuse for a Pheu Thai withdrawal from the current coalition government, according to Jatuporn who had previously worked for the de facto Pheu Thai boss.
“Since nothing in politics is impossible, Thaksin could possibly do something unimagined by others to serve his hidden agenda at any given time,” the ex-Red Shirt leader said.
He said all those lawsuits previously filed against Thaksin and convicted by court had only involved misconduct and corruption charges in addition to the lese majeste ones, thus being uncategorised as those which might possibly otherwise warrant amnesty.
CAPTIONS:
Top and Front Page: De facto Pheu Thai boss/former prime minister Thaksin Shinawatra, right, and de facto Klatham boss/leader Thammanat Prompao, left. Photo – Amarin TV
First insert: Prime Minister Anutin Charnvirakul, left, and de facto Klatham boss/leader Thammanat Prompao, right. Photo – Thai News Pix BBC
Second insert: De facto Bhumjaithai boss Newin Chidchob. Photo – Naewna
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