The majority of Thais disagree with efforts by populist Pheu Thai Party to form a coalition government after snapping ties with election winner Move Forward, a recent opinion poll showed.
About 64% of 1,310 respondents said they “did not agree at all” or “disagreed” with Pheu Thai’s plan to lead what it called a reconciliation government, according to the Aug. 15-17 survey by the National Institute of Development Administration, known as Nida. Around a third of those polled supported the move, of which about 20% expressed “strong support.”
Thailand’s parliament is set to meet Tuesday to select a new prime minister, marking a second vote to break the political gridlock that’s roiled the nation’s financial markets since the May 14 general election. Srettha Thavisin, a former property tycoon and Pheu Thai nominee, is poised to seek approval to take the top job.
Pheu Thai, backed by the family of former prime minister Thaksin Shinawatra, has cobbled together a 10-party alliance that now includes a number of pro-royalist and establishment parties in the outgoing Prayuth Chan-Ocha-led government. The new alliance — formed after Pheu Thai broke away from a previous pro-democracy bloc led by Move Forward Party — is backed by 274 lawmakers in the 500-member elected House of Representatives.
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But Srettha, 60, will need the support of the majority of the 750 legislators in the joint National Assembly, which combines the lower house and the 250-member Senate. Pheu Thai is in talks with Palang Pracharath, another military-backed party in the outgoing government, which may help it win the backing of the Senate.
Thaksin’s daughter Paetongtarn Shinawatra was the most-preferred for prime minister among the three Pheu Thai candidates, with almost 39% of the respondents backing her, Nida said. Around 37% of those polled backed Srettha, while the party’s third nominee — Chaikasem Nitisiri — attracted less than 10% of the vote, according to the survey.
About 50% of the survey participants said Pheu Thai and Move Forward, which won the most number of seats in the election and has ruled out its support to Srettha, are now seen as political opponents, but were important to each other.
Move Forward leader Pita Limjaroenrat was blocked from taking the prime minister’s office by pro-establishment senators and lawmakers, who opposed his party’s pledge to amend the law barring criticism of the royal family and other reformist agendas seen as hurting the pro-military and business elites.
