Royalists foil Pita Limjaroenrat. Here's what happens now
Thailand's Pita Limjaroenrat may get another shot at the country's prime minister job next week.
But his path to potential power remains unclear, especially if the leader of the country's Move Forward Party does not budge from his election pledge to amend a law that prohibits criticism of the monarchy.
Limjaroenrat fell 51 votes short of the majority he needed from the 749 members of Thailand's bicameral National Assembly for the top job in a first parliamentary vote on Thursday.
While he secured 311 votes from his eight-party coalition, he only gained 13 of 250 in the Senate — an entity created by the royalist military after a coup in 2014 and stacked with conservative royalists.
While this development was widely expected, the deep divisions underscore the royalist senators' mistrust of Limjaroenrat and his Move Forward Party's anti-establishment agenda, while also highlighting the risk of prolonged political turmoil in Southeast Asia's second-largest economy.
"Should there be a protracted delay in the formation of a new government, or if the eventual prime minister is not seen to have a popular mandate, it could drive a resurgence of large scale protests," Grace Lim, an analyst with Moody's Investors Service, wrote in a Friday research note.
"Persistently elevated political tensions could erode the credibility and effectiveness of Thailand's institutional frameworks, particularly if these tensions reduced the authorities' ability to effectively execute macroeconomic policy and respond to long-term issues, including ageing and labor skills," she added.
Another vote is tentatively scheduled for Wednesday. Forty-two-year-old Pita, who attended Harvard Kennedy School, will be able to stand for prime minister if nominated again by his eight-party alliance.
Otherwise, Pheu Thai — the second-largest party in the eight-party coalition with Move Forward — may also put forward its own candidate from among the three candidates the party had earlier surfaced.
They are Paetongtarn Shinawatra, the daughter of the exiled populist ex-Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra; former property tycoon Srettha Thavisin and Chaikasem Nitisiri, the party's chief of strategy and political direction.
Source: CNBC
