Pita Limjaroenrat, the leader of Thailand’s young, progressive party, says he is “not giving up” on his bid to be the country’s prime next minister, after failing to win a majority in a parliamentary vote for the top job.
Mr Pita, 42, ran unopposed in the high-stakes contest, but only managed to receive 324 votes in his favour, which left him 51 short of the required threshold of 375.
“With the results of what happened in the parliament today, I accept it, but I’m not giving up,” Mr Pita told journalists after the session finished.
The Harvard graduate’s Move Forward party surprised just about everyone in Thailand to win a majority in the May election, with 151 seats and a total of 14.4 million votes.
This was not enough to govern in its own right, so Move Forward then formed an eight-party coalition with the second largest party, Pheu Thai, as well as six smaller parties.
The alliance backed him for the premiership, but that only guaranteed him 311 votes.
In Thailand, the position of prime minister is decided by the 500 elected MPs as well as 250 unelected, military-aligned senators.
Mr Pita only managed to receive votes from 13 of the senators, while the rest abstained or voted against him.
“I thank the 13 senators who voted in favour. I will find the reasons why many of them were absent,” Mr Pita said.
‘They have crushed us’
Hundreds of the Move Forward party’s supporters dressed in its trademark orange gathered in a park across the road from the Thai parliament to watch the vote unfold on a big screen.
There were loud cheers for every “yes” vote, but as it became clear Mr Pita was not going to win enough support, people became angry and some were in tears.
“I am disappointed, they don’t respect us, they have crushed us,” Move Forward supporter Ngoentra Kamsang told the ABC.
Supattra Namthongchai said Thai people wanted democracy after nine years of military rule following the 2014 military coup.
“How can our country move forward when [the senators] try to pull it back and play games?” she said.
Move Forward supporter Arnon Nuansatang said he was “really, really sad” because the senators had not listened to the voice of the people.
“Some senators did not do their duties … and if you don’t do your job you should go home and you should not get paid by taxpayers money because you do not serve the people,” he said.
Uphill battle for Pita ahead of vote
Even before the vote the signs were there that Mr Pita was fighting an uphill battle.
Part of Move Forward’s election platform was a proposal to amend Thailand’s lese majeste law (Section 112), which makes it a crime to defame or insult the monarchy.
Penalties can be as high as 15 years in prison per offence.
Hundreds of critics of the monarchy have been jailed over the years, including more than 250 young activists, some under 18, who took part in anti-monarchy protests in 2020.
Almost 200 of those cases are still before the courts.
In a country that has traditionally revered the monarchy, the idea of watering down the lese majeste law is so radical that minority parties and many members of the military-appointed Senate vowed to block Mr Pita from becoming prime minister.
“If there is condition to lead our country to conflict, like amending or abolishing Section 112 and the constitution, we can’t allow that to happen,” senator Somchai Sawangkarn said in a social media video ahead of the vote.
“We will vote to protect people of the whole country because that is better than letting Thailand get a prime minister and coalition government who will be a danger and a threat to the country.”
Chulalongkorn University political science professor Thitinan Pongsudhirak told the ABC he was “not surprised” by Mr Pita falling short of the votes needed.
“The crux of the issue here is about the role of the monarchy in Thailand’s political order,” Professor Thitinan said.
“In the past, we didn’t talk about this in Thai politics – the lese majeste law, the role of the monarchy – but now is actually right at the centre of Thai politics, it’s the main fault line.”
What is standing in Pita’s way?
On the eve of the vote there was a double blow for Mr Pita, with two separate complaints referred to Thailand’s notoriously conservative constitutional court.
The first was over his ownership of shares in a media company, which is against election rules.
Mr Pita inherited the shares from his late father in 2006 and transferred them to relatives last month.
The media company has not operated since 2007.
The second complaint states that Move Forward’s policies to amend the lese majeste law amount to an attempt to overthrow Thailand’s entire political system with the King as head of state.
Professor Thitinan said Move Forward’s reformist policies represented “an existential threat” to the conservative establishment, which factored into today’s vote.
“[Move Forward] presents such a fundamental, frontal challenge to the established centres of power, the old guard, and they’ve struck back,” he said.
If the constitutional court rules against Mr Pita and Move Forward he would be banned from parliament and the party could be dissolved.
The court has given no timeline to carry out its inquiries or release findings, but under Thai law, technically Mr Pita could still become prime minister even if he is removed from parliament.
What happens next?
Another prime ministerial vote is tentatively scheduled for next Wednesday, July 19.
Mr Pita’s eight-party coalition will now have to decide whether it puts him forward again, or chooses a different candidate.
The alliance’s next biggest partner is the party backed by divisive former PM Thaksin Shinawatra, the Pheu Thai party.
It won almost 11 million votes and 141 seats in the May poll.
Pheu Thai has consistently backed Mr Pita for the top job since the alliance was formed.
But it does have two prime ministerial candidates waiting in the wings – Mr Thaksin’s daughter Paetongtarn Shinawatra and property tycoon Srettha Thavasin.
“I think they will put Srettha in, but if they still have Move Forward in the coalition, the Senate will not vote for them,” political scientist Punchada Sirivunnabood from Mahidol University told the ABC.
“So then Pheu Thai have to consider how to manage this to get the Senate to vote and support them.”
Pheu Thai does not support reforms to the royal defamation law, making it possible to build a different coalition with some of the conservative parties and force Move Forward into opposition.
“I think Pheu Thai is the most important factor and the important player in this game,” Dr Punchada said.
“They have to consider which way they can form the government and select the prime minister.”
One conservative partner it might court is the Bhumjaithai Party, whose leader Anutin Charnvirakul was the health minister responsible for decriminalising cannabis in Thailand.
Bhumjaithai won 71 seats at the election, making it the third most popular party.
It refused to join the Move Forward-led coalition because it said it would rather be in opposition than support a party that wanted to change the royal defamation law.
‘There will be an uprising’ if majority vote ignored
There is a high possibility that all of these political manoeuvrings will lead to a result where the Move Forward party is relegated to the opposition benches, despite winning the majority of seats in an election seen as free and fair.
“It’s really not a good sign for the development of democracy in Thailand,” Dr Punchada said.
“People want to see a person from the party that they voted for to be a prime minister or to be the government, so if we keep relying on the support from the senate for the prime minister vote, then why have an election, right?”
Prominent human rights lawyer and Move Forward supporter, Arnon Nampa, said a vote against the people’s wishes would be a “betrayal”.
“If the door to [Move Forward] forming a majority government is shut, there will be an uprising across the country,” Mr Arnon said.
Professor Thitinan said he expected there to be some “very tense days and weeks coming up”.
“There’ll be some protests here because Move Forward won 14.4 million votes and a lot of the supporter base will feel like they have been jilted, short-changed, and deprived,” he said.
