Who is Thailand’s new acting Prime Minister, Prawit Wongsuwan?

Today, Deputy Prime Minister Prawit Wongsuwan was asked to step in as acting PM of Thailand after the Constitutional Court voted to suspend PM Prayut Chan-o-cha from his duties.

The court has suspended PM Prayut until they make a final verdict about whether his premiership hit the constitutional eight-year limit today, August 24, 2022. The court’s decision is expected to take around one month.

In the meantime, 77 year old Prawit will serve as Thailand’s prime minister. But who is Prawit Wongsuwan?

The Bangkok-born minister is considered a “soldier politician.” Between 2004 – 2005, Prawit was the commander-in-chief of the Royal Thai Army, and served as Thailand’s Minister of Defense from 2008 – 2011 and again from 2014 – 2019.

He served as Deputy Chairman of the National Council for Peace and Order (NCPO), the military junta that took power over Thailand in a coup d’état in 2014. According to New Mandala, Prawit is “widely considered the architect of the 2014 coup.”

In December 2017, he became the focus of a luxury watch corruption scandal. At first, Prawit was pictured wearing a Richard Mille designer wristwatch valued at an estimated three million baht. The public wondered how Prawit acquired the watch on his modest government salary.

Over time, Prawit was pictured wearing more and more luxury watches from brands Richard Mille, Rolex, Patek Phillippe, Audemars Piguet, A. Lange & Sohne, and G-shock.

In total, Prawit has been pictured wearing 26 different luxury watches with a total estimated value of 40 million baht. The National Anti-corruption Commission (NACC) launched an investigation into the watch collection after finding out that Prawit had not listed a single watch in his asset declaration.

Prawit said he had “borrowed” the watches from his deceased friend Patthawat Suksriwong and had already returned them. The excuse was met with public ridicule, yet the head of the NACC determined that Prawit’s explanation was true and acquitted him of the corruption accusations.

The Association to Protect the Thai Constitution said that Prawit is “unusually wealthy”…

“Gen Prawit served in the army for about 40 years and was a political office holder for two terms, without any businesses. He could not possibly acquire such a great deal of wealth.”

In May, Prawit predicted his provisional rise to premiership, claiming, “there may be a substitute prime minister.”