Acting Thai leader moves to dissolve parliament, setting stage for elections

Bhumjaithai Party leader Anutin Charnvirakul (centre) attends a press conference after securing the backing of the opposition People's Party to serve as Thailand's next prime minister at the parliament in Bangkok. Thailand's acting prime minister has moved to dissolve parliament. Photo / Chanakarn Laosarakham, AFP

Thailand’s acting Prime Minister moved to dissolve Parliament today, his party said, after the largest opposition group backed a rival candidate to lead the country.

The decision – a potentially legally fraught one – could see the kingdom hold fresh elections before the year’s end, just two years after it last went to the polls in May 2023.

A power vacuum has consumed Thailand’s top office since Friday, when Prime Minister Paetongtarn Shinawatra was ousted by the Constitutional Court over an ethics breach.

Her Pheu Thai party – still governing in a caretaker capacity – had courted the power-broking opposition People’s Party to back its new candidate for prime minister.

But the People’s Party instead declared its support for conservative tycoon Anutin Charnvirakul.

Moments later, Pheu Thai secretary-general Sorawong Thienthong told AFP that acting Prime Minister Phumtham Wechayachai “has submitted a house dissolution decree”.

Whether a caretaker Government has the power to dissolve Parliament is a hotly debated question.

But according to the Thai constitution, if the King approves the dissolution of Parliament, an election must take place between 45 to 60 days later.

“It’s likely an election will happen in the next few months,” Titipol Phakdeewanich, a political scientist from Ubon Ratchathani University told AFP.

“An election might be the best solution for the country, because now it’s almost impossible to form a normal government.”

The People’s Party also said its backing of Anutin was conditional on a House dissolution within four months – meaning his elevation to office would likely lead to fresh polls, albeit on a later timescale.

Covid and cannabis

The People’s Party pledged its 143-strong parliamentary bloc to back Anutin, heir to a construction engineering fortune, who told reporters it was “the duty of MPs” to vote him into office.

“From this point onward forming a government is essential, and we understand the party is seeking a way to resolve the crises,” he said.

Anutin previously served as Deputy Prime Minister, Interior Minister, and Health Minister – in 2022 delivering on a promise to legalise cannabis.

Charged with the tourist-dependent kingdom’s Covid-19 response, he accused Westerners of spreading the virus and was forced to apologise after a backlash.

But with parliamentary dissolution pending, it is unclear whether he will make it to the top office.

Pheu Thai is the current electoral vehicle of the Shinawatra dynasty, which has for two decades jousted with the kingdom’s pro-monarchy, pro-military elite.

But the party’s influence is in decline, analysts say, the move to dissolve Parliament more evidence of flagging momentum.

Anutin’s Bhumjaithai Party was a key coalition backer of former Prime Minister Paetongtarn but abandoned their pact to govern this summer over her conduct during a border row with Cambodia.

That same dispute saw Paetongtarn sacked by the Constitutional Court.

Only candidates nominated as potential premiers in the 2023 election are eligible to serve as Prime Minister, and a streak of turmoil had seen the number of potential leaders whittled down to just five.

-Agence France-Presse