Abhisit not joining Democrats in contesting general election

By Thai Newsroom Reporters

FORMER PRIME MINISTER Abhisit Vejjajiva reconfirmed today (Mar.21) he will definitely not jump onto the Democrat bandwagon of candidates running in the May 14 general election.

Abhisit said he has already resolved to not join ranks with Democrat electoral contestants either in party-listed or constituency-based mode though some among the party’s rank and file may have preferred him to.

After the 2019 general election, the former premier staged an historic, solo protest against the Democrats for having voted in support of Prayut Chan-o-cha as unelected prime minister, regardless of his repeated vows to never endorse the army chief-turned-coup leader for head of a post-election government.

Abhisit did not only resign as leader of the third largest coalition partner but as MP in protest of his own party’s aboutface.

Nevertheless, Abhisit said he will invariably remain a member of the country’s oldest party and keep a low profile in the current political arena.

Abhisit said he agreed to the NIPA Poll which has forecast the Pheu Thai will win most votes in the upcoming election and might probably get as many as 250-plus MPs whilst no other party might get anywhere up to 100 MPs.

According to the former Democrat leader, it remains to be seen whether the Pheu Thai could possibly muster support from more than half the total of MPs and senators combined, or at least 376, to become core of a post-election coalition government.

It will be very unlikely for the 250 senators, all of whom had been handpicked by the 2014 coup junta, to vote for the Pheu Thai, given Prayut’s unyielding antagonism to de facto party boss/deposed prime minister Thaksin Shinawatra.

CAPTION:

Former prime minister Abhisit Vejjajiva. Top photo: Thai Rath, Front Page photo: INN News

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