Thai parliament blocks Pita's 2nd PM bid

Pita Limjaroenrat, winner of Thailand's general election in May, failed to gain the parliament vote to be renominated as prime minister on Wednesday.

The Constitutional Court on the same day suspended him from parliament due to a disqualification case.

The attempt to renominate Pita for prime minister failed as 395 of 715 parliamentarians voted that the renomination violates Parliament regulation No 41, which deals with the submission of a repeat motion.

Lawmakers gathered in a joint session of the bicameral parliament on Wednesday to make a second bid to elect Thailand's prime minister, following last week's unsuccessful initial attempt.

Earlier in the day, Thailand's Constitutional Court suspended the Move Forward party leader and prime ministerial candidate Pita as a member of parliament pending the court's ruling on his disqualification case submitted by the Election Commission.

The court's decision came after it received a complaint filed by the Election Commission that Pita owned shares in a media company at the time of registering his candidacy for the May 14 election, which violates electoral rules.

Pita, a 42-year-old Harvard alumnus, left the chamber following the official order from the court. He has 15 days to respond to the case, according to the court's statement.

Move Forward party won the election, which saw a record turnout, with 151 MP seats compared with runner-up Pheu Thai's 141.

Protesters gathered outside the gates of the parliament to express their anger over the court's decision to suspend Pita as an MP. They later moved to the Democracy Monument in downtown Bangkok in the evening.

There was no voting on the prime minister position since Pita was the only one nominated for the day. As he was the only PM candidate from the Move Forward party, the three candidates from the Pheu Thai party will be next in line.

If a new prime minister can be selected and a new government can be formed by August or September, the impact of the election on the Thai economy will not be serious and investment projects can proceed, said Thanawat Pholvichai, rector of the University of the Thai Chamber of Commerce and advisory chair of the Economic and Business Forecast Centre.

If, however, a new government cannot be formed by October or even later, disbursement of the 2024 fiscal year's budget will be postponed to the second quarter of the year, which will affect the national economy, said Thanawat.

The Bank of Thailand said on Wednesday that the election of the next prime minister will not have much of an impact on the country's overall economic outlook and it will enjoy a growth of 3-4 percent this year.

But the central bank expects the enactment of the fiscal 2024 budget bill to be delayed, said governor Sethaput Suthiwartnarueput, noting the economic forecast had already taken into account a political scenario of a delay in the formation of the next government.