By Thai Newsroom Reporters
DE FACTO PHEU THAI BOSS Thaksin Shinawatra was covertly scrambling to have former coup leader-turned-prime minister Prayut Chan-o-cha named for prime minister again in a last-ditch effort to prolong his Pheu Thai-led coalition government, a partisan source said today (Sep.2).
The mega-billionaire, power playing Thaksin has conjured another secret deal to keep himself in power albeit literally behind closed doors by clandestinely offering to name Prayut, who is currently a privy councillor, for prime minister to replace his daughter Paetongtarn Shinawatra who was ousted on Friday by the Constitutional Court from elected premiership.
For the time being. Thaksin was impatiently awaiting a response from Prayut who would have to resign as privy councillor if he agreed to be named prime minister again, the partisan source said.
Prayut, the former army chief who staged the 2014 coup to depose Thaksin’s sister Yingluck Shinawatra as elected prime minister and named himself as head of a military-installed government was one of a couple of Ruam Thai Sang Chart contenders for prime minister in the 2023 election alongside party leader Pirapan Salirathavibhaga.
During the final days of his nine years in power as prime minister until 2023, Prayut had managed to curtail the de facto Pheu Thai boss’s eight-year jail sentence to only one year under a royal decree which the then-convict at large had failed to observe but managed to keep himself from being literally put behind bars after he had returned from self-exile abroad.
Thaksin had finally decided against naming Chaikasem Nitisiri for prime minister though he was one of a trio of Pheu Thai contestants for prime minister in the previous race to parliament in addition to former prime minister Srettha Thavisin and Paetongtarn and instead conducted his latest, hush-hush lobbyism to get Prayut for head of the next Pheu Thai-led government, the partisan source said. Chaikasem was known among the Pheu Thai rank and file to be distrusted by the de facto party boss, however.
Those coalition partners and renegade MPs who may have departed the Pheu Thai-led coalition for the Bhumjaithai-led coalition at the moment would likely take a U-turn to stay with the next Pheu Thai-led government only if Prayut was named prime minister again, according to the partisan source.
That apparently refers to the Klatham under de facto party boss Thammanat Prompao, a Ruam Thai Sang Chart faction led by Suchart Chomklin and a dozen Pheu Thai renegade MPs, among others.
Meanwhile, Pheu Thai-attached caretaker prime minister Phumtham Wechayachai told reporters today he has not yet contemplated dissolving the House of Representatives to return power to the people by way of a general election no matter if such action on his part may be deemed legitimate or constitutional in the first place.
Phumtham was apparently responding to yesterday’s event in which People’s spokesperson Parit Wacharasindhu had dared him to dissolve the House to call a general election at any time from now without unnecessarily waiting for the People’s decision on whom they will vote for prime minister.
The Pheu Thai were apparently awaiting a pivotal decision of the People’s, currently the party with the largest number of MPs, as to whether they will support Bhumjaithai leader Anutin Charnvirakul or Chaikasem for prime minister during a special House session scheduled between tomorrow (Sep.3) and the upcoming Friday.
The People’s have offered to endorse any partisan candidate for prime minister on condition that the next head of government dissolve the House to call a general election in four months after their policy statement has been addressed at parliament and hold a public referendum for the people nationwide to decide whether the coup junta-designed constitution of 2017 should be amended as a whole by an elected Constitution Amendment Committee. On their part, the reformist party have vowed to not join the new coalition government or take any ministerial seat in cabinet.
CAPTION:
Former coup-leader-turned-prime minister Prayut Chan-o-cha, left in above photo and right in Front Page photo, and de facto Pheu Thai boss Thaksin Shinawatra. Credit: Thai Rath
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