Prayuth Chan-ocha has held the post since 2014. But he would prefer to start the timer from 2017, when the new constitution was enacted, or 2019, when parliament first nominated him. The court will now consider which of those dates makes the most sense
Save time by listening to our audio articles as you multitaskPrayuth Chan-ocha, a 68-year-old former general who took power in a military coup in 2014, has been suspended as prime minister while the court hears an opposition-party petition against his rule. The constitution decrees that the prime minister “shall not hold office for more than eight years in total”. Mr Prayuth has held the post since August 24th 2014.
The ruling may make Thai politics more stable rather than less, reckons Korn Chatikavanij, a former finance minister who now heads Kla, an opposition party. It appears to be a decent advertisement for the separation of executive and judicial power. And it might dissipate public disillusionment at the continued rule of Mr Prayuth, who survived four no-confidence votes in parliament in his eight-year stint. Dissipate, but not eliminate.
It will take more than the replacement by the courts of one ex-general with another to get democracy activists popping corks. Elections in 2019 were beset by restrictive rules and irregularities in the vote-count, and in any case a senate appointed by the army holds a veto over elected lawmakers. The government has cracked down on protesters and since the start of the pandemic hasmore than 200 people under lèse-majesté laws, which forbid criticism of the all-powerful king.
The government will hope to have its house in order well before November, when the summit of the Asia-Pacific Economic Co-operation, a big forum, rolls into Bangkok. The army’s party, Palang Pracharath, must in any case pick a prime ministerial candidate before the next election, scheduled for early next year. The opposition will have its tail up, even if it fears that the vote will be just as flawed as the last one.
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