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Thailand
AsiaSoutheast Asia

Move Forward’s hopes of leading Thailand’s government dashed with court challenge rejection

  • Any hope of the election-winning party forming a government was all but killed off by the Constitutional Court’s decision on Wednesday
  • Its rejection of a request to review the blocking of party leader Pita Limjaroenrat for the PM post paves the way for another vote on who will lead

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Supporters of Move Forward and its leader Pita Limjaroenrat protest against Thailand’s political deadlock in Bangkok on Monday. Photo: EPA-EFE
Reuters
Thailand’s Constitutional Court on Wednesday rejected a request from the election-winning Move Forward Party to review a parliamentary decision that blocked its prime ministerial candidate from being renominated.

The move all but kills off any hope of the progressive Move Forward leading the next government and paves the way for the legislature to hold another vote on a prime minister as soon as this week.

Thailand has been under a caretaker government for five months and its biggest parties in parliament have been unable to form a government after Pita Limjaroenrat, leader of the anti-establishment Move Forward party, was rejected as prime minister by lawmakers allied with the royalist military.

02:27

Thailand’s Pheu Thai party splits from Move Forward, nominates Srettha Thavisin as prime minister

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The court in its decision said it declined to accept the case because it was lodged by a group of more than 20 individuals that did not include the prime ministerial candidate himself.

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“Their rights were not violated and they did not have the rights to file the complaint,” it said of the petitioners, in what was a unanimous decision.

Allies of Move Forward had petitioned the court to decide on the legality of a July 19 decision by lawmakers to prevent Pita from being nominated for prime minister for a second time after his failure at the first attempt.

Thailand’s parliament will meet to vote on a new prime minister on August 22, house speaker Wan Muhamad Noor Matha told reporters on Wednesday.

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