Thailand prime minister selection meeting takes a raincheck

The President of the National Assembly of Thailand today officially announced the meeting in Parliament to choose the next prime minister has been postponed. The meeting, originally scheduled for Thursday, July 27, will be delayed until further notice.

Wan Muhamad Nor Matha, also known as Wan Nor, explained that the meeting to select the next Thai prime minister has been cancelled until the Constitution Court can conclude whether Parliament‘s rejection of Move Forward Party (MFP) leader Pita Limjaroenrat’s PM renomination was proper, legal and justified.

The Thai Ombudsman informed the Thai media yesterday that they had forwarded a complaint related to Parliament‘s rejection to the Constitution Court. However, no specific details were released regarding when the court would conclude its investigation on the matter.

According to Wan Nor, the cancellation was issued to prevent any conflict in Parliament after the court’s official verdict. The meeting to prepare for the Parliament discussion a day before, July 26, was also cancelled.

The decision to cancel the meeting also came in response to formal requests from a number of MPs who want to celebrate King Rama X’s birthday on Friday, July 28. MPs from various parties would be joining the festivities at provincial city halls across the country, raising concerns that the scheduled meeting might delay their preparations for the celebration.

As of now, Wan Nor has not yet announced a new schedule for the next Parliament meeting to select the new prime minister but he urged MPs to wait for the official announcement of the rescheduled meeting.

In related news, the Pheu Thai Party also cancelled a meeting with the eight aligned political parties today. Their decision was based on the assessment that the matters under their responsibility did not have any significant processes to update in the meeting.