PM, cabinet members win confidence vote in Parliament

After four days of debate, and vicious attacks from the opposition, Thailand’s PM Prayut Chan-o-cha and five of his Cabinet easily won a vote of confidence from the House of Representatives this morning.

MPs of the Pheu Thai Party, the largest opposition party, who walked out of the chamber near the end of the debate last night after it failing to persuade the House to extend the debate time, boycotted the vote, as did most of the opposition, except for MPs of the now-defunct Future Forward Party and the Seri Ruam Thai Party, who didn’t vote, following an apparent rift among the opposition parties.

The PM got 272 votes of confidence as opposed to 49 votes against him. His votes numbered five fewer than the 277 votes of confidence garnered by Deputy Prime Minister Prawit Wongsuwan.

Deputy Agriculture Minister Thammanat Prom-pow received the least votes of confidence at 269.

A breakdown of the vote of confidence is below:

Prime Minister Prayut Chan-o-cha 272-49 (2 abstentions)

Deputy Prime Minister Prawit Wongsuwan 277-50 (2 abstentions)

Deputy Prime Minister Wissanu Krea-ngam 272-54 (2 abstentions)

Interior Minister Anupong Paojinda 272-54 (2 abstentions)

Foreign Minister Don Pramudvinai 272-55 (2 abstentions)

Deputy Agriculture Minister Thammanat Prom-pow 269-55 (7 abstentions)

SOURCE: Thai PBS World | Bangkok Post