Image: Reuters Berita 24 English - Prayuth Chan-ocha , the suspended Thai prime minister, will go to a meeting at the defence ministry on ...
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| Image: Reuters |
Berita 24 English - Prayuth Chan-ocha, the suspended Thai prime minister, will go to a meeting at the defence ministry on Thursday. This comes as a longtime ally starts his first full day as acting prime minister and Thailand prepares for weeks of uncertainty while a court decides Prayuth's fate.
Prayuth, who is 68 years old, kept his job as defence minister in the cabinet even though the Constitutional Court suspended him from the top job on Wednesday until a review of his constitutional term limit.
The court decided to hear a petition from the main opposition party. The petition said that Prayuth, who first came to power in a coup in 2014 when he was army chief, has reached the eight-year limit because his time as junta chief should count.
The court put Prayuth on hold until it made a decision about the petition. It hasn't said when.
Prayuth hasn't said anything about the court's decision in public, and it wasn't clear if he would do so on Thursday.
On Wednesday, a government spokesperson said that Prayuth respected the decision and asked everyone else to do the same. The spokesperson also said that the government would work as usual.
Deputy Prime Minister Prawit Wongsuwan, who is 77 and also a royalist and an ex-army chief with close ties to Prayuth, has taken over as interim leader. He is also a royalist and was in charge of the army for a long time, but he was not expected to show up in public on Thursday.
After he got rid of an elected government in 2014, Prayuth ran the country as head of a military council.
He became civilian prime minister in 2019 after an election held under a constitution written by the military in 2017 that said a prime minister could only be in office for eight years.
The next general election in Thailand is set for May of 2019.
'PRAYUTH SHOULD RESIGN'
The fight over Prayuth's job could bring back old rivalries that have led to nearly two decades of political upheaval, including two coups and violent protests. Most of this trouble has been caused by people who don't want the military to be involved in politics and people who want more political power as political awareness grows.
The petition was filed by the main opposition party, Pheu Thai. In 2014, Prayuth overthrew the government led by Yingluck Shinawatra, who was the sister of former prime minister and telecoms magnate Thaksin Shinawatra.
Both Yingluck and Thaksin, who was kicked out of power in a coup in 2006, live abroad.
Chonlanan Srikaew, the leader of Pheu Thai, asked Prayuth to step down.
Chonlanan said in a post on Facebook, "For the sake of the country, General Prayuth should step down so we can start the process of choosing a prime minister based on the constitution as soon as possible."
Prayuth's supporters say that his term started in 2017 when a new constitution went into effect or after the 2019 election, so he should be able to stay in power until 2025 or 2027 as long as he has support in parliament.
Even if the court decides later that Prayuth's term is over, the coalition he leads has enough votes in parliament to pick the next prime minister.
People didn't say much about Prayuth's suspension, but a small group of pro-democracy activists set off fireworks Wednesday night near the prime minister's home and fought with police.
Business leaders told the Bangkok Post that investors may lose faith in Southeast Asia's second-largest economy because of the political turmoil. However, the business sector is still "upbeat," they said.
"No matter what happens to the prime minister, business is still confident that the Thai economy can handle growth," said Sanan Angubolkul, chairman of the Thai Chamber of Commerce.
