The Palang Pracharath party’s place in a new cabinet remains in the balance, as the party is now openly split over a cabinet seat for Thammanat Prompao, the party secretary-general and caretaker agriculture minister.
The two faction leaders, Thammanat and party leader General Prawit Wongsuwan, flexed their muscles today by organising separate meetings to show how much support they have among the party’s 40 MPs.
General Prawit abruptly cancelled a party meeting and instructed his loyalists to meet with him at his stronghold, the Foundation for the Conservation of Forests in Five Adjoining Provinces. He claimed to have mobilised 25 MPs, including himself and Santi Promphat, a deputy leader, who was nominated by the party to replace Thammanat as agriculture minister.
Thammanat, meanwhile, held his meeting with MPs who support him at the Ministry of Agriculture. Among them were Phai Lik and Atthakorn Sirilatthayakorn, who has reportedly been proposed for deputy agriculture minister.
Thammanat’s faction claims to have 29 MPs, but a list of only 18 was released this morning, and some of the names also appear on General Prawit’s list.
The embattled secretary-general told the media that he has decided to part with General Prawit whom, he claimed, to have served loyally for six years, and that there is no need for him to talk with Prawit ever again.
Thammanat said that his faction will support the Pheu Thai-led government. He insists they will remain with the Palang Pracharath party, as long as they are not expelled.
The faction, including Thammanat, is unlikely to quit the party, because they would lose their parliamentary status.
Thammanat also claimed that Palang Pracharath cannot arbitrarily decide who should be included on the list of prospective cabinet ministers without the consent of the caretaker ministers.
Paibul Nititawan, deputy leader of Palang Pracharath, was seen with Thammanat in his office this afternoon. It is reported that he was sent by General Prawit to talk with Thammanat.
When asked about the list of proposed ministers from the Palang Pracharath party, Prime Minister Paetongtarn Shinawatra said the party must settle its own internal problems first.
General Prawit is reported to have told a TV news anchor that the Pheu Thai party has reservations about Thammanat because of his prior criminal record.
Thammanat spent four years in a Sydney prison in Australia during the 1990s on a drug trafficking conviction. He claims, however, that the heroin involved in the prosecution was actually just flour.
