Caretaker Prime Minister Anutin Charnvirakul maintained today that he did not betray the People party or breach the memorandum of agreement (MoA) between his Bhumjaithai and the People parties, but simply accepted the challenge, issued in parliament by People party leader Natthaphong Ruengpanyawut, for him to dissolve the House.
“He (Natthaphong) enabled me to become the prime minister and now he said he does not want to support me and asked me to dissolve the House. So, I did so in accordance with etiquette and procedure, as it should be,” said the prime minister.
One of the four conditions stipulated in the MoA is that the prime minister must dissolve the House in four months to pave way for a snap election.
Anutin claimed that the Bhumjaithai party had voted in support of the constitutional amendments bill in its first and second readings, but could not do so in the third reading of the bill because it could not pressure senators to vote in support of the bill, as wished by the People party.
The People party wants to amend the charter by deleting a clause in the existing charter, stating that approval of constitutional amendments in the final reading requires at least half of the combined votes of both the Senate and the House, and this must include at least one third of the Senate’s votes being in favour.
Anutin explained that the MoA does not mention anything about the Senate and, therefore, the Bhumjaithai party has not broken the terms of the MoA.
