Thailand\u2019s junta chief Prayut Chan-O-Cha was elected late Wednesday as the kingdom\u2019s first civilian prime minister since the 2014 coup he led, in a vote by a parliament stacked with appointed allies of the conservative, arch-royalist army.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The senate, which was appointed by the junta, includes scores of military officers and loyalists many identifiable as they read out Prayut\u2019s name by their short serviceman\u2019s haircuts.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
His election completes a journey for the 65-year-old Prayut from gruff army chief who toppled the last civilian government to prime minister, with claims to legitimacy after an unexpectedly strong showing from his army-linked party in a March general election.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Prayut swept aside his sole challenger, the charismatic 40-year-old billionaire Thanathorn Juangroongruangkit who led the anti-military bloc, garnering 500 votes to his rival\u2019s 244.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Victory for the retired general was all but guaranteed by the support of the handpicked 250-member senate and the late swing of key secondary parties into an army-affiliated coalition after frantic behind-the-scenes talks.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Critics say Prayut represents a narrow elite and lacks the vision to govern as a civilian leader, having failed as junta leader to reboot Thailand\u2019s economy, bridge its chasmic inequality or heal the ulcerous political divisions.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
After the count, a defiant Thanathorn vowed to \u201cwork harder\u201d to build Thailand\u2019s pro-democracy front.With his withering critiques of the military and its conservative politics, Thanathorn is seen as a serious long-term threat to the establishment.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
But he is besieged by court cases that could see him banned from politics and even jailed. He could not even enter the parliament building on Wednesday because of the legal suits against him. Analysts say Prayut, a divisive military man unused to debate and consensus-building, has a lot of work ahead.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cI am going to vote for General Prayut,\u201d said Mongkolkit Suksintharanon, head of the Thai Civilised Party, a junta ally. \u201cThanathorn has no experience.\u201d The March election was cast as a choice between a tethered democracy led by a junta in civilian clothes and parties aligned with Thaksin.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
But an unexpected third force emerged, led by the billionaire auto parts scion Thanathorn.His Future Forward Party won 81 seats to become Thailand\u2019s third-largest party, emerging from nowhere to scoop up millions of votes.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Before the parliamentary session, former prime minister and ex-Democrat Party leader Abhisit Vejjajiva who did not oppose Prayut\u2019s 2014 coup resigned his seat in protest at his party\u2019s decision to support the ex-general for premier.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Meanwhile, lawmakers from Pheu Thai, the political machine tied to self-exiled premier Thaksin Shinawatra, took advantage of the rare opportunity to criticise Prayut during the televised proceedings.Thanathorn was put forward on Tuesday as the anti-junta bloc\u2019s only choice for premier, despite the odds against him.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Thailand\u2019s junta chief Prayut Chan-O-Cha was elected late Wednesday as the kingdom\u2019s first civilian prime minister since the 2014 coup he led, in […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":63089,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[87],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-63088","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-world"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blastingskyhawk.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/63088","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blastingskyhawk.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blastingskyhawk.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blastingskyhawk.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blastingskyhawk.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=63088"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/blastingskyhawk.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/63088\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":63090,"href":"https:\/\/blastingskyhawk.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/63088\/revisions\/63090"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blastingskyhawk.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/63089"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blastingskyhawk.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=63088"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blastingskyhawk.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=63088"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blastingskyhawk.com\/english\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=63088"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}