Updated: Giving the people what they don’t want

Monocle had this view on the delay at the Constitutional Court:

Officially, the hold-up is a result of the constitutional court’s ruling but most legal decisions by Thailand’s conservative judiciary need to be viewed within a broader political context. Earlier this week, in a bid to win support from rival lawmakers, Pheu Thai ripped up its coalition agreement with Move Forward and vowed to leave Thailand’s controversial lèse-majesté law untouched. Those moves were thought to be enough to win over the establishment, but clearly, not everyone is convinced.

Certainly, the Puea Thai Party is continuing to inch towards the conservative coalition predicted by academic Patrick Jory. The Bangkok Post reports that the “Palang Pracharath Party (PPRP) is likely to join a new coalition led by the Pheu Thai Party, which is seeking to gather the support of at least 300 MPs to ensure a stable new government, according to a Pheu Thai source.” That’s almost as conservative-bad as it gets for Puea Thai as this would link them up with the military’s devil seed party and with its convicted heroin smuggler.

For a party that campaigned against this party and promised to end military domination of politics, this is a triple backflip.

The Post reports that Puea Thai source: “Currently, parties that have now agreed to join the new coalition include Bhumjaithai, Chartthaipattana, the Democrats, Prachachat and a few micro-parties…. If the United Thai Nation [UTN] Party and the PPRP are brought into the coalition, the number of MPs will rise to about 300… Of the two parties, the PPRP is more likely to join…”.

All these creepy deals mean that the next government is the old government + Puea Thai. That’s clearly not what Puea Thai promised those who voted for it.

Update: Puea Thai is reportedly having difficulty putting together a coalition on its own terms. It seems that potential coalition partners – most of them from the former military-backed government – are making demands Puea Thai is having trouble with. In addition, “after breaking away from the Move Forward Party …[the party] is now in a real dilemma as to how to avoid losing support from voters if it sides instead with those parties currently in the caretaker government, seen by some as the conservative camp.” Meanwhile, an effort is being made to undermine Srettha Thavisin. In the end, and in a deep pessimistic moment, we at PPT would not be at all surprised if we ended up with Gen Prawit Wongsuwan or Anutin Charnvirakul being put up for a prime ministerial vote.