Governing coalition parties today (Wednesday) successfully blocked an attempt by the opposition Move Forward party to have a debate in the House of Representatives over the blocking, by anti-establishment protesters, of a royal motorcade carrying Her Majesty Queen Suthida and HRH Prince Dipangkorn Rasmijoti in Bangkok on October 14th last year.
Move Forward MP Wanwaree Talomsin proposed in Parliament this morning that the House consider its urgent motion, calling for a House panel to investigate alleged the police’s poor management of traffic on the day, resulting in the driving into the middle of protesters on Phitsanulok Road.
The motion had earlier been submitted to the House by Pol Maj-Gen Supisarn Bhakdinarinath, a party-list MP of Move Forward party.
The proposal was challenged by Atthakorn Sirilatthayakorn, a party-list MP for the Palang Pracharat party.
House Speaker Chuan Leekpai instructed government and opposition whips to settle the issue and ordered a suspension of the session for about ten minutes.
When the session resumed, the opposing sides had failed to reach a compromise, prompting the House Speaker to call for a vote. The Move Forward party’s proposal was rejected by 246 votes to 45 votes with 6 abstentions.
Three Move Forward MPs later held a press conference to express the party’s disappointment that the royal motorcade issue was not debated.
One of them, Nattacha Boonchaiinsawat, said that the motorcade issue needs to be resolved transparently.
Five protesters were indicted for acts allegedly harmful to the Queen (Section 110 of the Criminal Code that includes death penalty as punishment) and some senior police officers tasked with crowd control on the day were abruptly transferred, but their superiors were not disciplined.
