THURSDAY, March 28, 2024
nationthailand

Paiboon urges Prayut to maintain neutrality if he wants to become post-election outsider PM

Paiboon urges Prayut to maintain neutrality if  he wants to become post-election outsider PM

People’s Reform Party founder Paiboon Nititawan on Monday warned Prime Minister General Prayut Chan-o-cha, who recently declared that he was now a politician, to maintain his neutrality by staying away from any party membership or party lists of three proposed PMs.

Paiboon said that by being a prime minister outside the PM lists prepared by political parties as required by the charter, Prayut could be a “neutral PM for all”.
Under the 2017 Constitution, an outsider PM is allowed if Parliament fails to pick a premier from the proposed lists. 
Paiboon said his party would support such a “PM Prayut”. 
It has already gathered more than 500 members and plans to register as a new party by March, he added.
In a related matter, Deputy Premier Wissanu Krea-ngam said on Monday that the holding of local elections was still possible, but declined to confirm whether they could take place in the middle of the year as projected by the Interior Ministry.
Wissanu, the government’s main lawyer, said the amendments of at least six laws related to local elections were being revised by concerned parties, including the Election Commission, and would be potentially forwarded to the National Legislative Assembly by February. 
Local elections, he added, could be held within 45 to 60 days, the required period of preparation, which is shorter than that set for the national election.
The government, he pointed out, wished to see them held first and not to be close to the general election.
The government is now expediting the scrutiny of administrative officials currently barred from politics to see which of them would be returned to their posts and able to re-enter the political arena, he added.

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