Srettha promises more details once election receives royal endorsement
PUBLISHED : 22 Aug 2023 at 20:00
Prime Minister-elect Srettha Thavisin said on Tuesday he was ready to work to his utmost to improve the living conditions of Thai people.
He made the promise at the Pheu Thai Party headquarters at about 6.40pm after parliament voted for him as prime minister on Tuesday evening.
“I am truly honoured to be voted the 30th prime minister. I would like to thank all Thai people, coalition parties and all the representatives and senators who voted today. I will do my best, forget tiredness in the past and improve the living conditions of all Thai people,” he said.
Asked if he was ready to work as prime minister, Mr Srettha raised his fist and said: “Ready.”
He declined to answer other questions, saying it would not be appropriate until his election officially receives royal endorsement. A full press conference would be held then, he said.
Representatives of other coalition parties had phoned him and congratulated him, he added.
While Mr Srettha was chatting with reporters, Paetongtarn Shinawatra arrived at party headquarters to congratulate him. The youngest child of former prime minister Thaksin Shinawatra was another prime ministerial candidate of Pheu Thai.
The joint sitting of the House and the Senate on Tuesday elected Mr Srettha with 482 votes in favour, 165 votes against and 81 abstentions.
Most of the votes against came from the Move Forward Party, which won the most seats in the election on May 14 — 151 compared with 141 for Pheu Thai. But it was unable to get its leader, Pita Limjaroenrat, elected as PM in Parliament.
Now in opposition, Move Forward made clear earlier that it was not voting against Mr Srettha personally, but against the coalition he heads, which includes two parties linked to the “uncles” who overthrew a previous Pheu Thai government in a military coup.
Chaithawat Tulathon, the Move Forward secretary-general, said on Tuesday evening that it would play a “proactive and creative” role as the main opposition party.
Also in opposition is the 25-member Democrat Party, which is currently adrift after two failed attempts to choose a new leader. Sixteen Democrats voted for Mr Srettha and seven abstained in line with a party resolution. Former leaders Chuan Leekpai and Banyat Bantadtan voted against the Pheu Thai nominee.
Piyabutr Saengkanokkul, secretary-general of the Progressive Movement and a co-founder of Future Forward, the now-defunct predecessor of Move Forward, said that Pheu Thai was now firmly part of the same establishment camp as the parties it used to campaign against.
In a post about the new governing coalition on X (formerly Twitter), he wrote: “This is a gathering of traditional elites — the original political elite and the economic elite — in a passive revolution to maintain their status and power and undermine … the new power that was forming and challenging them.
“In the 1970s and 1990s, they had done it before, but this time, the situation has changed completely. People’s mindsets have changed a lot.
“The Progressive Party (Move Forward) must (emphasise ‘must’) pledge and establish itself as a representative of the new force and the vehicle of the majority of the people.
“A new historical battle has clearly begun A new dividing line has been drawn.”