Tomorrow’s fraught PM vote postponed: house speaker

The parliamentary vote for prime minister scheduled for tomorrow will be postponed until after Aug. 16, according to House Speaker Wan Muhamad Noor Matha.

The postponement comes as parliament waits for the Constitutional Court’s verdict on Move Forward Party’s petition opposing the parliamentary resolution to block Pita Limjaroerat’s re-nomination as a prime minister candidate.

Additionally, the Pheu Thai party was supposed to hold a press conference today to announce a new coalition, but this was also delayed.

These announcements are the latest in a series of opaque political maneuvers following Pheu Thai’s decision yesterday to form its own coalition government without the election-winning Move Forward Party. Pheu Thai leader Cholnan Srikaew announced that it would not include the MFP due to their policy of amending the controversial lese majeste law.

The Pheu Thai leader told a press conference on Wednesday afternoon that the Move Forward Party failed to get the needed parliamentary support and that the MOU between the eight-party alliance was no more.

Pheu Thai said it would nominate real estate tycoon Srettha Thavisin as their PM candidate.

At a press conference yesterday evening, Move Forward Party deputy sec-gen Chaitawat Thulathon apologized for not being able to push for the formation of a government that respects the will of the people through elections.

The party also accused Pheu Thai of lying, saying the Pheu Thai Party never requested they withdraw their plan to revise the lese majeste law. The MFP was informed, Chaitawat says, that most political parties were not keen on having them as a part of the government coalition, regardless of whether they pursued revision of the lese majeste law.