BANGKOK: Thailand’s parliament elected Anutin Charnvirakul as the country’s new prime minister on Friday (Sep 5).
He secured a majority of 311 votes, beating Pheu Thai party’s Chaikasem Nitisiri in the first prime minister face-off in parliament since 2019. Chaikasem himself secured 152 votes out of the 490 cast, and there were 27 abstentions.
Anutin was already in pole position ahead of Friday’s vote, declaring that he had secured 146 votes from his own Bhumjaithai party and its allies, while the largest parliamentary bloc, the People’s Party, said its 143 lawmakers would also support him on the condition that parliament is dissolved for fresh polls within four months.
“It’s normal to feel excited,” Anutin told a scrum of reporters as he arrived for the vote.
Heir to a construction engineering fortune, the 58-year-old has previously served as deputy prime minister, interior minister and health minister – but is perhaps most famous for delivering on a promise in 2022 to legalise cannabis. That policy is now in the process of being more strictly regulated for medical purposes.
Charged with the tourist-dependent kingdom’s COVID-19 response, he accused Westerners of spreading the virus and was forced to apologise after a backlash.
DYNASTY IN FLIGHT
Anutin’s elevation to office is set to be another major blow to the Shinawatra clan, which has been a mainstay of Thai politics for the past two decades.
Their populist movement has long jousted with the pro-military, pro-monarchy establishment – but is being increasingly bedevilled by legal and political setbacks.
Anutin once backed former Prime Minister Paetongtarn Shinawatra’s coalition, but abandoned her this summer in apparent outrage over her conduct during a border row with neighbouring Cambodia.
https://www.channelnewsasia.com/asia/thailand-vote-pm-bhumjaithai-pheu-thai-anutin-charnvirakul-chaikasem-nitisiri-5333921
