Officials meet to discuss possibilities
PUBLISHED: 11 Aug 2024 at 05: 51
On Sunday, coalition events in the Pheu Thai-led authorities are expected to discuss their possible response to Wednesday’s Constitutional Court decision regarding whether Prime Minister Srettha Thavisin may keep his job.
His choice to appoint former convict Pichit Chuenban to the government is in question. Social spectators predict that the prime minister will survive the case, though. Phumtham Wechayachai, the party’s and partnership representatives, announced on Saturday that they would meet fortnightly at Government House.
” It is just a regular conversation. We discuss the president’s work, difficulties and roadblocks so we can discover answers. It is also about reviewing parliament’s plan and commission’s work,” said Mr Phumtham, even a federal whip.
Asked about the jury case against Mr Srettha, Mr Phumtham said:” We have never made any preparation. The jury may be allowed to operate independently. We may value the criminal process. When asked if Mr. Srettha’s government had a backup plan in place, Mr. Phumtham replied,” We do n’t think about it.” It is up to the court to decide”.
The coalition parties do n’t care about the situation. Our only area of focus is our job. After the judge’s ruling, we may consider again what we should do, “he said. If the court fire Mr. Srettha, some spectators have speculated as to who will take up his position. But, Mr Phumtham seemed oblivious to such debate, or that it would cause changes elsewhere in the government line-up.
He claimed that Mr. Srettha did not attend the meeting because a cabinet reshuffle would be one of the topics up for discussion at the time. Mr. Phumtham remarked that it is just a normal conference of coalition parties and leaders. If the situation is settled before the court, Mr. Srettha recently stated that he was willing to consider a cabinet reshuffle. He made the remark after Pirapan Salirathavibhaga, the leader of the coalition United Thai Nation ( UTN) Party, proposed a shake-up to allow its secretary-general Akanat Promphan to fill a ministerial post that remains vacant under the party’s quota.
The Political and Public Policy Analysis Institute producer Thanaporn Sriyakul said he believed the jury would favor Mr. Srettha and that the prime minister would be able to keep his job.
40 past senators, who had been found guilty of contempt of court for attempting to reward Supreme Court officers in 2008 while representing former prime minister Thaksin Shinawatra in a contentious area case, filed a complaint in May to ignore the prime minister.
Just before the jury heard the plea, which was thought by some to be a charge to save Mr. Srettha from a legal battle, Pichit resigned from the position of PM Office Minister. The judge agreed to hear the case against Mr. Srettha, but the jury rejected the circumstance against Pichit because he had already resigned.
Pichit was appointed a secretary 10 years after serving his prison term, as required by the vote law, according to a source in the cabinet before, so his imprisonment in the 2008 contempt of court case did not make him ineligible for that position. The source said that it is a different issue to determine whether Pichit adheres to the moral and ethical standards set forth in the law.
Prior to this, former legislator Wanchai Sornsiri noted that Pichit had been barred from assuming the position because he had only been found guilty of contempt of court and never attempted extortion.