Thailand High Court suspends PM Candidate Pita Limjaroenrat, to rule on Election Law violation

Thailand's Constitutional Court has decided to suspend Pita Limjaroenrat, the leader of the Move Forward Party and a candidate for the prime minister position, from his role as a member of Parliament while they investigate whether he breached election law.

As reported by AP, this announcement came just before an anticipated second vote in Parliament to confirm Pita as the prime minister. His party emerged as the top finisher in the general election held in May, forming an eight-party coalition that secured 312 seats in the House of Representatives.

Despite the coalition's failure to secure sufficient support in the first vote from the Senate, which votes jointly with the lower house to appoint the new prime minister, the Constitutional Court's recent decision to suspend Pita Limjaroenrat from his duties as a member of Parliament does not currently impede his nomination and potential selection as prime minister. His eligibility remains intact until the court reaches a final ruling on the matter.

Thailand's state Election Commission had forwarded Pita Limjaroenrat's case to the court, stating that there was evidence suggesting he had violated election law due to his alleged ownership of media company shares, which he had not declared. Such ownership is prohibited by lawmakers in the country.

Pita Limjaroenrat, a 42-year-old liberal leader of the Move Forward Party, who has received education in the United States, requires the support of over 50% of the bicameral parliament to be officially endorsed as Thailand's next prime minister, Reuters noted.

However, he faces strong opposition from the military, which is at odds with his party's anti-establishment aspirations.

As reported by Reuters, the parliamentary regulations, established by the military following a coup in 2014, were designed in a way that favoured the military's interests.

These rules resulted in Pita's initial defeat in the first round, where he faced opposition from a Senate appointed by generals who have aligned themselves with conservative factions and influential old money families that have traditionally held sway over Thailand's democratic system.

Ahead of Wednesday's session, Pita posted a message on Twitter asking senators to apply the same principles they did in 2019, when they voted for the candidate of a military-backed coalition that held a majority of House seats, AP noted.

Pita further accused some senators of using the controversial claim that he is undermining the monarchy as an excuse to reject his candidacy, when their actual reason is that they feel their own interests are threatened by his party's broader reform agenda.

Pita is not guaranteed to get another chance at securing a needed majority in a combined vote of the House of Representatives and the Senate. There first needs to be a ruling on whether he can legally receive a second nomination for the prime minister's post, which is not clear.

(Only the headline and picture of this report may have been reworked by the LatestLaws staff; the rest of the content is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)

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