Only one-third of party-hopping MPs to get reelected: Chonlanan

By Thai Newsroom Reporters

ONLY ONE-THIRD OF the Pheu Thai MPs who will likely switch camps might probably make it to parliament again, forecast Pheu Thai Party leader Chonlanan Srikaew today (Dec.12).

The opposition leader was apparently responding to speculation that 10 Pheu Thai MPs will likely hop over to the Bhumjaithai Party under which they will seek reelection in a nationwide race to parliament.

Chonlanan said the Pheu Thai will certainly send somebody else contesting the constituencies currently represented by those who are defecting to the Bhumjaithai, steered by de facto party boss Newin Chidchob.

According to Chonlanan, only one-third of those “renegade” MPs might probably be reelected under the tickets of the second largest coalition partner with the others being defeated by the contestants running under the banners of the largest opposition party, guided by de facto party boss Thaksin Shinawatra.

Nevertheless, Chonlanan said the planned defection of the 10 Pheu Thai MPs will not substantially affect a predicted landslide victory of Thaksin’s camp in the general election, expected early next year.

The “renegade” Pheu Thai MPs are reportedly among 40-plus lawmakers on either side of the House chamber aisle including 14 of the ruling Palang Pracharath Party who will very likely hop over to Newin’s camp shortly. Most are scheduled to show up at the Bhumjaithai headquarters as newly-registered partisan members on Friday.

Thaksin has repeatedly expressed his long-awaited design to return home after years of self-exile overseas alongside his sister Yingluck Shinawatra, given possibilities of the Pheu Thai scoring a landslide victory in the general election and subsequently setting up a government of their own with purported intent to manage to make his dream come true once and for all.

Both Thaksin and Yingluck had been separately deposed as elected prime ministers in the 2006 and 2014 coups with the latter being orchestrated by the then-army chief Prayut Chan-o-cha who turned himself into head of a post-coup, military-installed government and was named by the Palang Pracharath as sole partisan candidate for prime minister in the 2019 general election.

CAPTIONS:

Top: A representative image of MPs hopping over to Bhumjaithai Party. Credit: Matichon

Insert and Front Page: Pheu Thai Party leader Chonlanan Srikaew. Inserted image: Thai Rath, Front Page image: Matichon

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