Advertisement
Thailand
This Week in AsiaPolitics

Thailand hangs on decision by pro-democracy party for route out of deadlock

People’s Party moves into king-making role as Pheu Thai and arch-conservatives work to secure its support for their prime minister candidate

4-MIN READ4-MIN
Listen
Demonstrators wave Thai national flags during a protest at Victory Monument in Bangkok, Thailand on August 31. Photo: EPA
Aidan Jones
Thailand remained in a political deadlock on Tuesday, as the Pheu Thai party hinted it could dissolve parliament and set the course for a general election, while the opposition People’s Party refused to back either the caretaker government, or the arch-conservatives who blocked them from power just two years ago.
The kingdom’s protracted political crisis has taken another messy turn since Paetongtarn Shinawatra, the daughter of the divisive billionaire Thaksin, was removed as prime minister last week by the constitutional court.
It ruled she had breached the ethics of office in a leaked conversation with Cambodia’s former leader.

The political vacuum has pushed the People’s Party – with the most number of MPs – into a king-making role, with Pheu Thai’s caretaker government needing its 143 lower house votes to drive their party candidate Chaikasem Nitisiri into the prime minister’s office.

People’s Party leader Natthaphong Ruengpanyawut in Bangkok in August 2024. The party’s previous incarnation was Move Forward Party, which shook up Thai politics at the last election in 2023. Photo: Reuters
People’s Party leader Natthaphong Ruengpanyawut in Bangkok in August 2024. The party’s previous incarnation was Move Forward Party, which shook up Thai politics at the last election in 2023. Photo: Reuters

People’s Party – known as Move Forward Party (MFP) in its previous incarnation – shook up Thai politics at the last general election in 2023 with a radical reform agenda, winning the most seats as it pulled in millions of first-time voters and ate into Pheu Thai’s rural base without relying on the money politics traditionally associated with Thai elections.

Advertisement
Select Voice
Select Speed
1.00x