MOSCOW (Pakistan Point News / Sputnik - 05th July, 2023) Thailand will hold a joint session of its parliament on July 13 to vote for a new prime minister, the speaker of the lower house of the Thai parliament, Wan Muhamad Noor Matha, said on Wednesday.
Wan Muhamad spoke the day after he was elected as house speaker, a role in which he is able to call for a joint sitting of the country's parliament to vote on the next prime minister.
"On July 13, there will be a joint sitting of the House and the Senate to select the premier. The meeting will start at 9.30am. I have already discussed the issue with Speaker of the Senate (the upper house of the Thai parliament), Pornpetch Wichitcholchai, who agreed to the date," Wan Muhamad said, as quoted by the Thai PBS World media.
Wan Muhamad plans to call the first meeting of the lower house on July 12, to discuss technical issues, he was reported to have added.
The Move Forward Party, which won the most seats in the May 14 election, formed a coalition with seven other parties that is expected to propose the Move Forward leader, Pita Limjaroenrat, as the next premier. To secure the premiership, Limjaroenrat will need 376-plus-one votes from deputies and senators. So far he is seen as the coalition's single candidate, but each of the coalition parties also has their own prime ministerial candidates who could be officially nominated in the event Limjaroenrat does not get the necessary number of votes to form a government.
Some observers note that Limjaroenrat has little chance of winning the support of some senators, without which he cannot win the prime ministerial election. Many senators, reportedly, oppose the Move Forward Party's proposal to amend Article 112 of the Thai criminal code, which penalizes criticisms of the king and other royals. Proponents of keeping this article believe that its abolition would undermine the system of the constitutional monarchy that has been established in Thailand for many decades.
