Thai Election Body Certifies General Election Results – The Diplomat

ASEAN Beat | Politics | Southeast Asia

Thailand’s Election Fee has verified the outcomes of final month’s basic election, paving the way in which for the elected parliamentarians to convene and choose the nation’s subsequent prime minister in mid-July.

Chatting with reporters in Bangkok yesterday, EC Secretary Basic Sawaeng Boonmee stated that his company had verified the election of the five hundred elected members of the Home of Representatives, together with 400 representing constituencies and 100 elected from get together lists.

Underneath Thai legislation, the elected lawmakers should convene in Parliament inside 15 days, or by July 3, after which a joint session of parliament will convene to pick the home speaker and prime minister in mid-July. The nation’s protracted post-election interregnum will then come to an finish with the swearing-in of the brand new authorities in late July.

Sawaeng stated that the EC was nonetheless contemplating numerous complaints associated to the Could 14 ballot, which he stated couldn’t be accomplished throughout the 60 days granted to the company to verify the election outcomes. He stated that these excellent investigations “have to be accomplished inside one 12 months after the announcement of the electoral outcomes.” If there’s credible proof of electoral fraud involving any of the endorsed lawmakers, Sawaeng added, the EC can request that the Supreme Court docket revoke their electoral rights and, if crucial, name a brand new election.

That has implications for the victorious Transfer Ahead Get together (MFP), which prevailed within the election, profitable 151 seats within the 500-seat Home of Representatives, simply forward of the opposition Pheu Thai Get together, which clinched 141 seats. Each far outperformed the ruling pro-military Palang Pracharath Get together, which managed simply 40 seats, and Prime Minister Prayut Chan-o-cha’s United Thai Nation Get together, which emerged with 36, dealing a blow in opposition to the nation’s conservative ruling institution.

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Nevertheless, the MFP, whose insurance policies take intention at entrenched political and financial pursuits, faces quite a lot of obstacles to its ambition of forming Thailand’s subsequent authorities and ending a virtually decade-long interval of navy and military-backed rule.

The principle hurdle is the nation’s unelected 250-member Senate, which is able to vote together with the Home of Representatives to type the subsequent authorities, guaranteeing that any get together or coalition wishing to type authorities requires 376 votes fairly than a easy Home majority of 251. The eight-party coalition led by the MFP holds simply 312 seats, which means that it might want to win the help of 65 military-appointed senators, or Home lawmakers from conservative events, with a purpose to type authorities.

The MFP’s chief Pita Limjaroenrat additionally faces an EC investigation into whether or not he registered for the election figuring out that he could possibly be disqualified for holding shares in iTV, a defunct tv broadcaster.

The truth that the EC may rule on this any time between now and subsequent Could creates an extra mechanism by which the MFP victory may probably be subverted. Even when Pita succeeds in being elected Thailand’s subsequent prime minister, the investigation will forged a for much longer shadow of uncertainty over his authorities’s fortunes.