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
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 – 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.
But its win unnerved the country’s elite – especially with an election pledge to reform the draconian royal defamation law. That establishment has for decades used coups and the courts to destabilise or destroy elected governments that it fears do not represent its interests.