The Palang Pracharat party is confident it will be able to muster more than 250 MPs to form a majority coalition government after the Election Commission today announced the official election results in 349 constituencies, the one exception being Chiang Mai’s Constituency Eight.
Deputy party spokesman Thanakorn Wangboonkongchana said today that the party is also confident that Prime Minister Prayut Chan-o-cha will win the vote in the parliament to become prime minister for a second term.
He called on all parties to play by the rules in a constructive manner for the sake of peace and to allow the new government to perform its duties.
Core party members, including party leader Uttama Savanayana, secretary-general Sontirat Sontijirawong, election campaign chairman Somsak Thepsuthin and Bangkok’s election strategy chief Putthipong Punnakan, held a closed-door meeting at the party’s offices to discuss the latest political developments.
An informed party source said the meeting was waiting for the EC to announce the allocation of the party-list seats and that the party would have no problem with the EC’s method of calculating allocation.
The Pheu Thai party, meanwhile, accused the junta of plotting to stay in power by appointing its own people, from the National Legislative Assembly and government, to the Senate.
Party spokeswoman Laddawan Wongsriwong likened the junta’s power game to “playing musical chairs.”
Future Forward secretary-general, Piyabutr Saengkanokkul, said he was confident that the seven-party pro-democracy coalition alliance would win the majority in the House, if the EC sticks to the calculation formula whereby only parties which received more than 70,000 votes would be granted party-list seats.
He warned the EC that it could face consequences if it chooses to use a formula which means that all 27 parties contesting the election will get party-list seats, regardless of the number of votes they won.
He said that this formula, which is reportedly favoured by the EC, would be unfair to big parties like Future Forward, Palang Pracharat and Democrat parties, especially the Future Forward party which will find the total number of House seats it receives shrink from 87 to 80. The 7 seat reduction is equivalent to about 600,000 votes, according to Piyabutr.
