Thai Parliament to vote for prime minister on July 13

BANGKOK - Thailand’s Parliament will vote for a new prime minister on July 13, House Speaker Wan Muhamad Noor Matha said on Wednesday.

The announcement comes a day after Mr Wan Noor

was endorsed as House Speaker,

a role in which he is able to call for a joint sitting of the country’s bicameral legislature to vote on the next prime minister.

The election-winning Move Forward Party and populist Pheu Thai

trounced conservative rivals in a May ballot,

securing 151 and 141 seats in the 500-member Lower House, respectively.

Together with six other parties they are expected to propose Move Forward leader, the

United States-educated Pita Limjaroenrat,

as the next premier to replace the incumbent Prayut Chan-o-cha.

However, with 312 votes the alliance is short of the 376 votes that Mr Pita needs in the joint sitting, which includes a conservative-leaning 250-member Senate, who were appointed during military rule.

Mr Pita’s bid to be prime minister also faces another challenge outside Parliament. 

Thailand’s election commission set up an investigation in June to examine whether Mr Pita was eligible to run for office because of allegations that he owned shares in a now-defunct media company. Legislators are not allowed to own media shares. REUTERS