The formation of a new government in Thailand faces significant challenges following the opposition’s landslide victory in the May 14 general election. The 500 newly-elected Members of Parliament (MPs) are required to vote for the new prime minister alongside 250 senators appointed by military generals who staged the coup, according to Professor Duncan McCargo, director of the Nordic Institute of Asian Studies at the University of Copenhagen.
The opposition MPs, expected to form a six-party coalition, may struggle to get their prime ministerial candidate nominated if all the current government MPs voted along with the senators. The coalition will include the Move Forward Party, which emerged as the victor in Sunday’s general election, and runner-up Pheu Thai.
Pongkwan Sawasdipakdi, a lecturer at the Faculty of Political Science at…
