BANGKOK • A party linked to Thailand's exiled former prime minister Thaksin Shinawatra is rapidly becoming the talk of the country amid rumours that it will announce a shock prime ministerial candidate for next month's election.
The Thai Raksa Chart Party was Thailand's top trending hashtag on Twitter yesterday over speculation about who might be named, with more than 100,000 posts.
A local media report said the candidate will not be from the Shinawatra family.
A party spokesman declined to comment on the speculation beyond saying that it will submit its choice today, the Election Commission's deadline for candidate registration.
Thai Raksa Chart is viewed as an offshoot of the main opposition Pheu Thai Party - which is linked to Thaksin - and was established about a decade ago before re-branding and re-launching late last year.
The March 24 general election will be the first since the military seized power in 2014, an intervention that unseated a Pheu Thai-led administration headed by Yingluck Shinawatra, Thaksin's sister.
Yingluck fled Thailand in 2017 before being sentenced in absentia to five years in jail in a negligence case she said was politically motivated.
Thaksin or his allies have won every election dating back to 2001, only to be unseated by the courts or the military.
Thai Raksa Chart's Mr Chaturon Chaisang, a favourite candidate for prime minister, yesterday said he has yet to be invited to be on his party's nomination list for the post.
"I do not know since I am not a party executive," he said when asked by reporters about his party's nomination.
"Previously, I understood that I would be one of the candidates but now it's about to meet the deadline, no one has sent an invitation to me. So I think I may not have to give consent," said Mr Chaturon, who left Pheu Thai to run for the Thai Raksa Chart.
Mr Chaturon added that all decisions will depend on the party executive and they have yet to inform party members.
Each political party can submit up to three names as their candidate for the next prime minister.
Meanwhile, political risk is back in the spotlight in Thailand, a country with a history of elections followed by protests and coups. Pro-democracy parties and others that back a continuing role for the military in government are duelling for support, as one of the longest periods under a junta in Thailand's modern history comes to a close.
Prime Minister Prayut Chan-o-cha, the former army chief who led the 2014 coup and became head of the military administration, has yet to make his electoral intentions clear.
Palang Pracharath Party, a recently created party seen as supportive of the military government, has picked Mr Prayut as one of its prime ministerial candidates, but he has yet to accept the nomination.
The general election will be held under a military-backed Charter. Critics say the Constitution may give appointed soldiers and bureaucrats in the planned Senate the power to stifle elected politicians in the Lower House.
BLOOMBERG, THE NATION/ASIA NEWS NETWORK
