Thai PM under pressure as debate rages over his term limit
- Opposition parties say the former coup leader will be breaching the constitution’s 8-year limit if he stays in office even a day longer than August 23
- All eyes are on the constitutional court this week to decide the fate of Prayuth Chan-ocha, who survived a vote of no confidence last month
Thailand’s Prime Minister Prayuth Chan-ocha is facing mounting pressure to step down as political opponents and activists argue that he has completed a maximum of eight years in office on Tuesday.
The former coup leader-turned-prime minister is being targeted by opposition parties, who say he will breach the constitution’s eight-year limit if he stays in office even a day longer. They have sought a ruling from the constitutional court on whether Prayuth can stay beyond August 23 or to suspend him until there is a verdict.
Prayuth’s latest challenge is based on a debate over whether his years as junta leader should be counted in. He was named prime minister of a military government on August 24, 2014 following the May coup and reappointed to lead the civilian administration after a military-backed party formed a coalition to win the elections in 2019.
But some of Prayuth’s supporters have contested this view, saying the law must not be used retroactively and Prayuth’s term should be counted only from when the military-backed constitution became effective in 2017. Others have said his start date should be from when he became a civilian prime minister in 2019.
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All eyes are on the constitutional court this week to decide the fate of Prayuth, who survived a vote of no confidence last month and is expected to call the next elections by late March. There is no set time-frame for when the constitutional court would dismiss or accept the opposition’s petition for deliberation.
Prayuth has given no indication of an imminent resignation and the government only said it was up to the court.
“Whatever the result may be, the prime minister has emphasised that he is not above the law,” government spokesman Anucha Burapachaisri told reporters on Monday. “He will wholly respect the verdict.”
The baht declined the most in Asia on Tuesday, retreating as much as 0.7 per cent against the US dollar. While the domestic political uncertainty could affect the baht, “at this stage the external factor is more important”, said Qi Gao, FX strategist at Scotiabank.
The premier’s popularity has been declining according to recent opinion polls. More than 93 per cent of 374,063 surveyed by a network of academics from eight Thai universities said Prayuth should not stay in office for more than eight years, according to results published on Monday.
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“The next couple of days will reveal Prayuth’s true colours as one who has authoritarian values and abuses power with no respect to the constitution or one who truly accepts politics by its democratic ways and customs,” said Pheu Thai Party, whose former leader Yingluck Shinawatra was toppled by Prayuth in the 2014 coup.
Pheu Thai warned in the statement on Monday that Prayuth would risk causing “another national crisis” and more unrest in the country by clinging on to power. He last faced months-long student-led protests in 2020 that demanded his resignation and posed unprecedented challenges to the royalist military establishment.
In a joint statement on Sunday, 38 groups including civil society and student activists called on Prayuth to resign and urged the constitutional court to decide on his fate by Wednesday. Many groups are planning to stage protests at different locations in Bangkok including the Government House this week to pressure Prayuth to step down.
