The House of Representatives voted by 313 to 142 today to bring forward the vote for the new prime minister, as proposed by the Bhumjaithai party.
Bhumjaithai party leader Anutin Charnvirakul told fellow MPs that his party’s MPs will remain in the House to deliberate the pending bills after the vote for the new prime minister and will attend parliamentary sittings on regular basis until the House is dissolved.
Several Pheu Thai MPs objected to the change, however, among them Deputy Finance Minister Julapun Amornvivat, who claimed that several MPs were ready to debate a motion from MP Watcharaphol Khaokham.
During the debate on Watcharaphol’s motion, Prachachart party leader Tawee Sodsong, also acting justice minister, took to the floor to describe the signed agreement between the People’s party and Bhumjaithai, related to the voting for the new prime minister, as unconstitutional.
Tawee claimed that the preconditions in the agreement, which requires the new prime minister to dissolve the House within four months and that the new government must not seek to become a majority government, constitute a distortion of the Constitution.
He suggested that the matter should be forwarded to the Constitutional Court for a ruling on its constitutionality, a negative decision on which could lead to the dissolution of the two parties.
