The People’s Popular Party of Thailand has filed a request for non-conflict against Prime Minister Paetongtarn Shinawatra, on the grounds that she has not fulfilled his functions and is under the undue influence of his father Thaksin Shinawatra.
Addressing the press yesterday, the chief of the People’s Party, Natthaphong Ruengpanyawut, said that the Prime Minister did not have leadership, qualifications, knowledge and capacities to solve the problems with which the Thai people are confronted.
“The Prime Minister let the subordinates control him and let his father lead and persuade himself and get involved in the national administration,” said the opposition chief, according to the Bangkok Post.
The festival of the people has planned the motion of non-confidence for some time. The party initially intended to censor 10 ministers in addition to Paetongtarn, but has revised its approach after the list of ministers fled to the press last week. According to an “informed source” cited earlier this week by the position, there are also concerns within the party that the government plans to try to shorten the period of debate from five days to only two days.
However, Natthapong said yesterday that, although the motion of non-confidence only targeted the Prime Minister, its content concerned many of its ministries and the parts of the coalition. The popular part also accused Paetongtarn, who took office last year after the dismissal ordered by the court of his predecessor Srettha Thavisin, of not having properly administered the slow Thai economy and not to be “Check the votes of the coalition parties. »»
Under article 151 of the Thai Constitution, a block of at least a fifth of the members of the House of Representatives can take a vote of confidence against an individual minister or the cabinet as a whole. This is then followed by a general debate and a vote in which the motion requires a majority vote to pass.
It is unlikely that the motion will adopt the House of Representatives of 500 members, where the coalition government led by Paetongtarn, led by Pheu Thai, has a comfortable majority of 322 seats, but it will force the Prime Minister to submit to questions by people’s party legislators and the opposition frequently used this tactic to grill the government. (Prime Minister Prayut Chan-O-Cha, who led the 2014 military coup d’état and was Prime Minister until 2023, survived four separate votes without confidence.) The parliamentary president Wan Muhamad Noor Matha said that the debate will begin on March 24, and will continue for an indefinite duration in Couges.
Addressing the press on Wednesday, one day after summoning a meeting of the coalition parties to discuss the issue, Paetongtarn said that it was unprecedented about a potential censure motion and that this was willing to answer all the questions of the legislators. “We discussed the censorship debate in detail because we want this coalition to maintain its unity and its stability. We will all help each other [in the debate] In all ministries, ”she said.
While the People’s Party intends to resolve a wide range of questions, the emphasis on the influence of Thaksin addresses a long -standing controversy in Thai politics.
Before his return to Thailand in August 2023, Thaksin had spent the previous 15 years in self -exile, faced accusations of corruption that were brought against him shortly after his evidence in a military coup in 2006. During this period, the conservative and royalist parties accused him of controlling the Pheu Thai party and his predecessors of the foreigner.
It is also a question of a certain sensitivity for the People’s Party. The return of Thaksin was obtained within the framework of the agreement which saw the Thai party of Pheu join a certain number of conservative and pro-military parties, marking a period of relaxation in the long-standing conflict between the Thai conservative establishment and the Shinawatra political machine.
The agreement was negotiated after Pheu Thai abandoned the Forward (MFP) party, the predecessor since the party of the People’s Party. The MFP won a plurality of votes during the general elections held in May 2023, on explicit promises of radical reform, but was prevented from forming a coalition government with Pheu Thai after the Senate dominated by the soldiers voted against its candidate for the Prime Minister. The officials and members of the MFP, many of whom have since joined the People’s Party, still house a feeling of betrayal on the actions of Pheu Thai.
Since the return of Thaksin, who has seen his long term prison for abolished corruption, he has assumed a de facto leadership position within Pheu Thai and has played an active role in the communication of government’s political priorities.
The question of the incorrect influence of Thaksin therefore represents a rare overlap between the party of progressive people and the conservative side of Thai politics, and perhaps an attempt to gain conservative support for its motion. Despite the relaxation between Thaksin and his former rivals, the ultra-royalist conservatives have already filed a certain number of legal challenges against the administration of Paetongtarn, including an alleging that the Thai Pheu party has badly allowed Thaksin to control the party, although it does not occupy an official management position within the breast.
Although the motion is unlikely to pass, it will allow the People’s Party to score political points and stamp its own Gadfly reformist titles against Pheu Thai before the confrontation provided for in the next general elections.