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Asian Angle | Reality bites in Thailand as ‘political cobras’ return Prime Minister Prayuth Chan-ocha
- Prayuth Chan-ocha beat his pro-democracy rival 500 votes to just 244, with help from a hand-picked Senate and a coalition of allied politicians who traded campaign promises for cosy cabinet positions
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Thailand’s General Prayuth Cha-ocha has been returned for another term as prime minister after beating his anti-military rival Thanathorn Juangroongruangkit in this week’s joint parliamentary ballot, 500 votes to 244.
While Prayuth far surpassed the 376 votes needed out of the 750 from the lower House of Representatives and the Senate combined, his victory came after a long and heated parliamentary debate over the pro-military candidate’s suitability for the top job, the military’s opaque selection of the Senate, and legalities around the upper house’s role in the prime ministerial voting process.
Indeed, Prayuth’s victory was a foregone conclusion for many. He benefited from the electoral gains of the military backed Palang Pracharat Party, due in part to election rigging and manipulation of unprecedented scale by the junta, which was made possible by the constitution and acquiescence of the state apparatus, particularly the Election Commission.
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But the real kingmaker was undoubtedly the 250-member Senate that the junta hand-picked before this week’s vote, and was stacked with a core support base for Prayuth. With those votes safely in the pocket, the prime minister’s Palang Pracharat Party only needed 10 more in the lower house to win the country’s leadership. Add a few hundred more lawmakers aligned with the military, and the result was a landslide with a majority in both houses.
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Prayuth will now proceed to form his cabinet, which is expected to include members from the parties that backed his candidacy and struck deals ahead of the parliamentary vote.
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