Prayut tops list of ‘deserved censure targets’: Poll

The online survey was conducted on 1,021 respondents nationwide from July 4-7.

Asked which Cabinet member should be targeted during the no-confidence debate, 78.51 per cent of respondents named Prayut while Deputy PM Gen Prawit Wongsuwan ranked second with 65.17 per cent. Deputy PM and Public Health Minister Anutin Charnvirakul was third (61.30 per cent), followed by Deputy PM and Commerce Minister Jurin Laksanawisit (50.20 per cent) and Transport Minister Sakssayam Chidchob (38.59 per cent). Each respondent was allowed to choose more than one answer.

The no-confidence debate is due from July 19-22 with the vote set for July 23.

Prayut and 10 other ministers have been named as censure targets by the opposition.

Asked whether they think the censure debate will lead to House dissolution, 46.03 per cent said yes, 35.46 per cent said no and 18.51 per cent were not sure.

A large majority (83.38 per cent) agreed the government deserved to face a censure grilling. Most (71.02 per cent) also said they would follow the debate.

Asked to list issues they wanted the government to be grilled on, 75.67per cent pinpointed its failure in tackling economic woes. Failure to control rising prices came second (73.49 per cent), followed by corruption and nepotism (70.71 per cent), failure to amend laws in the public interest (64.45 per cent) and alleged irregularities in budget spending (60.58 per cent).

Asked what they wanted from the censure showdown, 80.18 per cent said fresh details with strong evidence to back up allegations. Meanwhile 77.50 per cent said they would like to see MPs be polite and control their anger while 76.11 per cent said they wanted opposition MPs present information useful to the public.

Asked what they don’t want to see during the debate, 84.33 per cent said quarrels and repeated protests while 68.95 per cent said political games that ignore the public interest and 64.84 per cent said MPs talking about irrelevant and old issues.