Prayut 'calm and collected' as he attends Defence Council meeting virtually
General Prayut Chan-o-cha told the Defence Council not to worry about him being suspended as prime minister and urged everyone to focus on their duties.
Despite growing pressure for him to also give up his post at the Defence Ministry, Prayut attended the Defence Council meeting on Thursday remotely via video teleconferencing.
“The issue of General Prayut being suspended as PM by the Constitutional Court was not brought up at the meeting,” Defence Ministry spokesman General Kongcheep Tantravanich said on Thursday evening.
“General Prayut appeared to be calm and collected at the meeting. He told the council not to worry and that he would continue fulfilling his duties [as defence minister], and asked everyone else to do the same.”
Kongcheep added that attending the meeting virtually was not out of the ordinary for Prayut because the practice had been adopted during the Covid-19 outbreak in the country.
The spokesman also insisted that Prayut is still the country’s prime minister, and it is only his duties as PM that have been suspended.
“He is also still the defence minister and can sign any order issued by the ministry. He can come in to work at the ministry headquarters any day, depending on how important the job is,” he said. “Also, it is not mandatory that all ministry orders have to be signed at the headquarters only.”
Kongcheep added that the Defence Ministry will support every government, no matter who takes on the PM’s job.
On Wednesday, Constitutional Court judges voted 5:4 to accept a petition to deliberate on Prayut’s tenure and suspended him as PM until a verdict is issued. The court’s order automatically put first Deputy Prime Minister Prawit Wongsuwan in charge as caretaker PM.
Opposition MPs invoked the Constitution’s Article 82 to launch a petition asking the court whether Prayut’s tenure should be deemed expired in line with the charter limiting a PM’s tenure to eight years.
They insist that his tenure should be calculated from August 24, 2014, when he took over as PM after leading a military putsch to oust the elected government of Yingluck Shinawatra. This means his tenure should have ended on Tuesday (August 23, 2022).