Updated: House in conflict

25 05 2019

PPT has been watching the Thai PBS telecast of the parliamentary session that is meant to select a House speaker.

As The Nation reports, “Phalang Pracharat MPs proposed postponing the voting for House Speaker in Parliament on Saturday amid reports that the pro-junta camp is still negotiating with other parties to form a coalition government.”

This has been vigorously opposed by the anti-junta parties, with the interim speaker, 91 year-old Chai Chidchob allowing a lengthy debate on the Palang Pracharath proposal. Palang Pracharath members repeatedly asked for the House to be postponed.

After a break of more than an hour at around lunchtime, the debate continued briefly before a vote was called.

Clearly, the junta doesn’t yet have all its score of parties in a row. This previews the future for the junta and its parties.

(One of the minor issues is that the parliament is meeting in a temporary building because the building has been given back to the king. The electronic voting system doesn’t exist, so Chai was confused on voting for a while. Eventually the idea of raised hands was suggested but a roll call preferred.)