Prayut quits from Ruam Thai Sang Chart Party

By Thai Newsroom Reporters

CARETAKER PRIME MINISTER PRAYUT Chan-o-cha yesterday (July 11) called it quits from the ultra-conservative party where he had been largely viewed as de facto boss, capping a nine-year-old, military-led regime which he himself has built as a coup leader-turned-prime minister.

On a Facebook page of the Ruam Thai Sang Chart, Prayut yesterday announced his resignation as member of the party under whose tickets Prayut ran in the May 14 election as partisan contestant for prime minister without putting himself among party-listed candidates.

Now that the de facto Ruam Thai Sang Chart boss has left the party, many of the 36 Ruam Thai Sang Chart MPs are speculated to hop over to other parties sooner or later.

The quitting of Prayut from the ultra-conservative party could possibly have been designed to give way for Palang Pracharath leader Prawit Wongsuwan to be named prime minister in rivalry against Move Forward leader/prime minister-designate Pita Limjaroenrat during tomorrow’s joint House/Senate meeting.

Prawit has remained tightlipped when asked by reporters to confirm or deny the possibility that he might finally contest the elected premiership against Pita.

Nonetheless, Palang Pracharath MP Thammanat Prompao, viewed as personally close to the party leader, has aired dissent to the possible setting up of a minority government, no matter whether it might be headed by Prawit.

The Prayut-led coup junta deposed an elected government under former prime minister Yingluck Shinawatra in 2014 and allegedly designed the constitution to the extent that it empowers all 250 senators, handpicked by Prawit and Prayut, to pick a prime minister alongside all 500 elected MPs.

After running the country as coup leader-cum-prime minister, Prayut was named by Palang Pracharath and voted for prime minister following the 2019 election.

CAPTIONS:

Top: Caretaker prime minister Prayut Chan-o-cha, right, and Palang Pracharath leader Prawit Wongsuwan, left. Photo: Matichon

Front Page: Caretaker prime minister Prayut Chan-o-cha. Photo: Thai Rath

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