BANGKOK: Thailand’s parliament on Tuesday postponed a vote to choose a new prime minister, prolonging the kingdom’s political deadlock more than two months after an election won by opposition parties.

Reformist candidate Pita Limjaroenrat, whose party won the election, failed to get enough votes in a first parliamentary sitting to select a prime minister on July 13 — blocked by military and pro-royalist senators.

He was refused a second ballot on July 19, but this decision is now being challenged at the Constitutional Court.

House speaker Wan Muhamad Noor Matha said the new vote for premier, scheduled for Thursday, had to wait for the court’s decision. “We have to cancel because the Ombudsman is about to send a case to the Constitutional Court,” Wan told reporters.

“If we go ahead with the sitting on July 27, before the court has ruled, it could cause problems.” Pita’s Move Forward Party (MFP) rode a wave of young and urban support eager for change to win a shock victory in May’s election.

But their campaign promises of reform to the kingdom’s strict royal defamation laws and monopolies provoked intense opposition from the conservative establishment.

Published in Dawn, July 26th, 2023