But the generals and their conservative royalist allies don’t seem to have gotten the message. Or, more likely, they got it loud and clear but are once again choosing to put their own desire to cling to power over the will of the majority of Thais. In the six weeks since the election, the ruling elite has done everything possible to block Mr. Pita from forming a government. More ominously for Thailand’s future, they now appear to be maneuvering to keep him from entering parliament altogether by having him disqualified on highly technical, clearly spurious legal grounds.
Mr. Pita’s first big hurdle to the top post is an unfairly skewed system for choosing a prime minister. The new constitution, drafted by the junta and adopted in 2017, was written specifically to preserve the military’s sway over any future elected government and prevent any real reformer such as Mr. Pita from coming to power. It stipulates that the prime minister be chosen not by the 500 members of parliament elected in May, but instead be jointly named by parliament and the 250-member appointed senate. All the senators owe their jobs to the ruling junta, and presumably remain beholden to the military.
Mr. Pita’s party triumphed with a stunning first-place showing, winning 151 seats in parliament, including sweeping all but one seat in the capital city, Bangkok. The second-place party was Pheu Thai, the latest version of the political machine of exiled former prime minister Thaksin Shinawatra. Turnout was a record-high 75 percent. The country’s election commission certified the results for all 500 seats, but left open the possibility that future investigations could bar some members. The king has set July 3 for the new parliament to be sworn in.
The two largest pro-democracy parties together garnered 292 seats, and, by adding in other smaller like-minded parties into a coalition, took their total to 312 seats, well past a majority. But with the votes of the military-appointed senate added in, the pro-democracy bloc needs more than a majority. It needs 376 votes — and here the math for Mr. Pita becoming prime minister has become nearly insurmountable.
Mr. Pita campaigned on a progressive platform to reform both the military and the monarchy. Move Forward’s plans include amending the strict lèse-majesté law, also known as Article 112, that outlaws almost all critical commentary on the king. Which helps explain why Mr. Pita has been unable to find sufficient support from enough senators to have a realistic shot at forming a government.
But not content to keep him out of the premiership, the ruling elite also appear to want him ejected from parliament. The election commission and the senate are separately investigating his business assets and finances, while questioning whether he was eligible to run in the May 14 election.
Both probes seem contrived. The election commission said it is looking into complaints that Mr. Pita might have held shares in a media company while running for parliament, which is illegal under Thailand’s election law. Mr. Pita said he only serves as executor of inherited shares in a defunct broadcaster, iTV, and that the company is no longer a media company. The senate has launched a separate investigation into a plot of land and a deeply indebted oil company, both of which Mr. Pita also inherited when his father died in 2006.
Security forces in Thailand are said to be on alert and readying for mass protests in the event that Mr. Pita is denied the prime minister’s post. Rather than preparing for unrest, it would be far better if the military were instead preparing for a transition of power to a popularly elected leader with demonstrated widespread support.
This is a crucial time for Thailand. The country’s military rulers need to know that the world, including the United States, is watching. The only democratic way forward is for the generals to step aside and let the clear winner of the May election form the next government.
