New party planned to back Prayut as premier after election

SUTHEP THAUGSUBAN, core leader of the now-defunct People’s Democratic Reform Committee (PDRC), plans to found a political party to support Prime Minister General Prayut Chan-o-cha becoming premier after the next general election, a former Democrat party-list MP has claimed.
Ex-MP Watchara Petchthong said yesterday that the party would be named the People’s Democratic Reform Committee Foundation, of which Suthep is currently president. 
A high ranking PDRC source, who is a former Democrat executive member, confirmed the report, saying that his group had to form a new party as his group had a different political stance from the Democrats.
“The Democrats insisted they would not support dictatorship and cannot accept the prolonged power of the junta, but Suthep insisted on support for Prayut otherwise they would lose to the Pheu Thai Party in the next election,” he said. 
Witthaya Kaewparadai, a former Democrat MP and ex-PDRC member, said he had heard about the report but thought it would be a gathering of people to form a political group and not a new party.
If a party was formed, however, Witthaya said Suthep would not be the party leader or party executive because he had made it clear he will not accept any political post.
Witthaya admitted that the new group or party would definitely affect Democrat’s political base because Suthep’s supporters are both supporters of the Democrats and the PDRC.
Watchara added that a new party would affect the Democrats because party members and former MPs, as well as supporters, would be divided and some would defect from the Democrats to join Suthep’s party. 
Suthep resigned from the post of Democrat secretary-general and the party in 2013 to found a movement under the PDRC aimed at ousting then-PM Yingluck Shinawatra, following the notorious “blanket” amnesty bill passed by Yingluck’s Pheu Thai Party legislators. 
His movement played a vital role in the 2013-14 Thai political crisis, organising large-scale protests in Bangkok. 
The protests led to a coup in May 2014 staged by then-Army chief Prayut. 
Suthep later dissolved the PDRC and set up the PDRC Foundation in 2015.
The PDRC leader was not the first person to found a party to support Prayut as premier. 
Paiboon Nititawan, a former member of the junta-appointed National Reform Council who now heads the Popular Reform Network, last year announced the establishment of the People’s Reform Network, which is expected to become a political party aimed at backing Prayut to lead the next government.
The 2017 charter allows an “outsider” or non-elected MP to become a PM. 
Prayut would become a premier if he is one of the premiership candidates presented by political parties during an election campaign or he could be proposed as a PM candidate during a vote for premiership by the members of House of Representative and Senators after the next election.