Thailand: Election Runners-Up Agree to Form Govt

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Facts

  • On Monday, Thailand's Pheu Thai Party announced it is joining hands with the conservative Bhumjaithai Party to form a new government, after it split from the election winning Move Forward Party which has failed twice to garner enough support in the National Assembly.1
  • Pheu Thai and Bhumjaithai — which placed second and third respectively in the May 14 general elections — have a combined 212 seats, but are still short of the 374 majority threshold needed to elect a prime minister.2
  • Pheu Thai leader Cholnan Srikaew claims the coalition has majority backing to form a government, though he didn't reveal the names of the parties expected to join the alliance.3
  • Srikaew also confirmed that the alliance's nomination to Thailand's top office would be Srettha Thavisin, who was initially announced as a candidate for prime minister last week.4
  • The Move Forward Party — which won more than twice the number of seats as Bhumjaithai — had agreed to let Pheu Thai nominate its own candidate. However, the group was removed from the coalition reportedly due to conservative opposition to its plan to amend the country's royal insult law.5
  • The ballot to elect the next prime minister — which was canceled last Friday — is yet to be rescheduled, as a Constitutional Court ruling about a renomination petition concerning Move Forward's Pita Limjaroenrat remains pending.6

Sources: 1Al Jazeera, 2Nikkei Asia, 3Thai PBS World, 4Bangkok Post, 5The Diplomat, and 6Bloomberg.

Narratives

  • Narrative A, as provided by Thai Enquirer. It's shocking, though not surprising given how Thai politics work, that the government-aligned Bhumjaithai and the opposition Pheu Thai are now forming an administration. This is just the latest chapter of a troubled story; after years of criticizing its betrayer over draconian policies, Pheu Thai leaders have surrendered their reputation and principles with the aim of returning to power.
  • Narrative B, as provided by Khaosod English. This coalition further indicates that Pheu Thai is repositioning itself on the political spectrum to become Thailand's main conservative party, possibly in response the monarchy-critical Move Forward Party's recent shift to become dominant in the left-leaning camp. This isn't about abandoning principles, but adapting to the reality that a government will not be formed without a level of compromise, and that it wouldn't be sensible to compete with Move Forward for the votes of Thailand's anti-establishment youth.