BANGKOK (Realist English). Thai lawmakers will vote on Friday to choose a new prime minister, with Anutin Charnvirakul — a former businessman known for championing the decriminalisation of cannabis — widely expected to secure the post and become the country’s third leader in just a year.
Anutin, 58, leader of the Bhumjaithai (Pride of Thailand) party and a veteran powerbroker, reached a deal this week with the opposition People’s Party, parliament’s largest bloc, to back his candidacy. That agreement appears to give him enough votes in the lower house to win. As part of the pact, Anutin pledged to dissolve parliament within four months and call fresh elections.
The vote follows last week’s removal of Prime Minister Paetongtarn Shinawatra by the Constitutional Court, which ruled she had breached ethics rules in connection with a leaked call to Cambodia’s former leader Hun Sen. Paetongtarn’s ousting is the latest in a long cycle of political turbulence in Thailand, where five prime ministers have been forced from office by court rulings over the past 17 years.
Thailand’s economy, reliant on trade and tourism, remains fragile: GDP growth has slowed, while the United States has imposed 19 per cent reciprocal tariffs on Thai exports. Analysts warn the latest political reshuffle may deepen uncertainty.
Anutin, heir to a construction fortune and a staunch royalist, has served as deputy prime minister and interior minister in Paetongtarn’s coalition government, and earlier backed the junta of Prayuth Chan-ocha. As health minister during the pandemic, he pushed through cannabis decriminalisation in 2022, though later supported tighter regulation.
His rise marks a setback for the populist Pheu Thai party, long dominated by the Shinawatra family. Paetongtarn’s father, Thaksin Shinawatra, was ousted in a 2006 coup and recently left Thailand again for Dubai after being acquitted in one case but still facing further court hearings.
Political scientist Thitinan Pongsudhirak of Chulalongkorn University described Thailand’s turmoil as a “recurrent pattern of elections leading to crises,” adding that the Shinawatra family name “is in terminal decline.”
A parliamentary vote could take place as early as Friday, with Anutin’s victory likely to reshape Thailand’s political landscape and set the stage for another round of elections early next year.