bannork

Reserved for Anuthin. A sweetner to join the coalition. ( joke)

True, but know when to fight your battles. MF are not even the government yet

I agree with Settha here. There's no point in ruffling feathers about something most Thais don't even know about. Concentrate on real, tangible reforms, don't tinker with trivia.

I expect Thaksin's daughter played a significant role in rallying older folks grateful for the 30 baht scheme. Regarding the House Speaker's post. Imo, MF should stand firm, everyone knows it won't be easy for Pita to be PM. MF could easily lose both posts. If PT find this unacceptable and break away to join military backed parties, it will show their true colours.

It's been pointed out that the Democrats will elect their new leader on July 9th. If Abhisit is elected, he and the party will vote for Pita as PM. Another 25 votes in the bag

No debate was allowed regarding the proposed constitution! Don't you find that absurd and utterly authoritarian? Here you are Thai people, take it or leave it, just don't talk about it. The Red Shirts said no but as mentioned already, if vote No had won, the junta would either have imposed. a constitution from the past that favoured the junta or spent years writing another one with no election in sight. Thai people had no real choice

From Wikipedia, note lines 8 and 9 The National Council for Peace and Order (NCPO) unveiled a draft constitution on 29 March 2016.[65] In the run-up to the 7 August 2016 referendum on the new constitution, the army conducted a "grassroots information campaign." There was no debate permitted on its merits.[66] Under the junta's rules, "people who propagate information deemed distorted, violent, aggressive, inciting or threatening so that voters do not vote or vote in a particular way" faced up to 10 years in jail and a fine of up to 200,000 baht.[67] The 105-page, 279-article constitution[2][3] was approved by 61.4 percent of Thai voters on 7 August 2016 with 59.4 percent of the public.

h90 forgets to mention that no criticism of the proposed constitution was allowed prior to the referendum. In addition, the Thai public was told if the public rejected the proposed constitution, the election would be postponed indefinitely whilst a new constitution was drafted.

Ah, perhaps you have stumbled across the 'kind adult' he talks about.

Talking of the Dems, I see Abhisit and Korn are being mentioned as potential leaders but both are from Bangkok whilst nearly all their 25 MPs are from the South.

Not easy for them to do that. They campaigned as a party supporting democracy against military interference in politics. Teaming up with Prayuth's or Pravit's parties could see a major backlash against them. Impossible to justify to the public

Let's look at the number of votes for Party List MPs in the last election: MF - 14,438,851 PT- 10,962, 524 UTNP( Prayuth)- 4,766,408 Bhumjaithai - 1,138,202 Democrats- 925, 349 Prachachart ( Southern Party) -602,645 Palang Pracharat ( Pravit) -537625 So if we take the proposed coalition we have MF, PT and Prachachart, totalling over 26 million votes Military backed parties total over 7 million votes Number of votes for senators- 0.0 recurring. 26 million to 7 million

There are precedents for both situations already In 2020 the Constitutional Court dismissed 51 or was it 59? cases of MPs holding shares in media companies because it was deemed such companies were no longer operating in the media field. More recently, the Supreme Court dismissed a case against a Democrat MP for possessing 200 AIS shares. The number was deemed insufficient to affect company policy Now how many shares in ITV did Pita have as trustee of his father's estate? Something like 0.0135% if I recall correctly

Some disagree. The 10 million who voted for PT because of the 30 baht health scheme will never desert the party, they argue. Perhaps.

Some more background to the man who luckily has two 'kind adults' looking after him https://www.thaienquirer.com/31648/opinion-turn-coat-mp-going-after-move-forward-party-is-biggest-irony/

Serial hand for hire

In 2020 The Constitutional Court acquitted 57 MPs accused of owning shares in media companies on the grounds such companies were inactive in the media field. One MP was found guilty and banned. More recently the Supreme Court acquitted a Democrat MP over the possession of 200 shares in AIS. Such a small number was deemed to be unable to affect company policy What was the percentage of ITV's shares held by Pita? Something like 0.0135%?

Give MF a chance! Thaksin decided back at the beginning of the millennium he would accept anyone into his party(ies) in order to strengthen them. Hence the inclusion of such people as Chalerm Youbamrung, a man with a very dubious background. There are plenty of seasoned politicians in PT, many jumped ship when things looked rough and then back again when a ministry beckoned

PT should cede to MF because there's no way Pita will be PM

Won't make PT happy as seen by Adisorn and Chalerm's comments yesterday. There's a lot of bad blood between MF and PT. MF see PT as controlled by one family, old style politics with many dubious characters, Chalerm being one. PT see MF as young upstarts who want too much. And there's Pravit in London. Will he dissolve his party, selling the MPs to PT to thwart MF?

I don't know what the procedure is if the House Speaker resigns or dies. I presume there is a new election for the position or perhaps one of the deputies takes over. Either way, there is a solution. MF take the post and if Pita is elected to be PM then the MF House Speaker resigns and MF vote for PTs choice.

A good and very competent man gone far too soon. RIP

A faction of PT led by Adisorn, are insisting PT get the House Speaker's post, even though they know full well Pita has little hope of becoming PM due to the Senate. Watch out MF, PT will get the two most important posts in spite of coming second.

Yes, some years ago he was on some Norwegian TV show promoting his latest venture and the interviewers politely asked him if he was enjoying life. 'It's fine,' he replied, ' apart from having to come on stupid shows like this.' The hosts laughed it off but it came across badly, arrogant and not funny. I prefer to remember his brilliance. My dad and I were in fits with sketches like this.