PPRP win ‘won’t affect’ cabinet rejig

The outcome of the Sunday by-election in Nakhon Si Thammarat won’t affect the coalition government’s unity, Prime Minister Prayut Chan-o-cha said on Monday.

The by-election in Constituency 3 — which was fiercely contested by the ruling Palang Pracharath Party (PPRP) and its coalition partner the Democrat Party — was held to find a replacement for Thepthai Senpong, a Democrat whose MP status was revoked by the Constitutional Court.

According to an unofficial tally of the votes, PPRP candidate Ayasit Srisuwan won the race with 48,701 votes, while the Democrats’ candidate and Mr Thepthai’s younger brother, Penguin Senpong, received 44,632 votes.

Traditionally, coalition partners don’t compete against each other, so the PPRP’s decision to field a candidate in the by-election raised many eyebrows, with observers fearing it would cause a rift between the two…