Thamanat congratulates ‘enemy of his enemy’ Pheu Thai for its by-election victory
Former Palang Pracharath Party (PPRP) secretary-general, Capt Thamanat Prompow, joined other parties in congratulating opposition leader Pheu Thai for its Bangkok by-election win.
Thamanat, who quit the ruling party under a cloud of acrimony, appeared to be satisfied with PPRP’s defeat and described Pheu Thai as the “enemy of my enemy”.
As soon as the initial vote count showed that Pheu Thai’s Surachart Thiangthong had won the Bangkok Constituency 9 by-election, Thamanat said in a Facebook post that he was happy to see voters exercising their ballot.
“This is democracy,” he said, add
ing “the enemy of my enemy is my friend” in English.
Before joining the PPRP, Thamanat was with Pheu Thai and was said to have been close to de facto leader Thaksin Shinawatra.
Thamanat and his faction of 20 MPs were expelled from the ruling party earlier this month for allegedly creating divisions and planning Prime Minister Prayut Chan-o-cha’s ouster.
Election results
PPRP candidate Saranrat Jenjaka only garnered 7,906 votes against Surachart’s 29,416 ballots.
“The government should be able to read and understand this signal. It needs to show what it can do to help people when it’s in power,” Korn added.
Move Forward Party leader Pita Limjaroenrat also congratulated Pheu Thai for its victory and thanked voters for the 20,3621 votes cast for his party’s candidate Krunphol Tiansuwan.
Nattawut Saikua, a former leader of the red-shirt United Front for Democracy Against Dictatorship, also posted a message on Facebook congratulating Surachart and sending moral support to Krunphol.
“I would like to congratulate MP Surachart, one of my beloved younger politician friends for his graceful return,” Nattawut’s post read.
“I want to send moral support to Phet [Krunphol] … You’ve done your best.”
Former Democrat MP Thepthai Senpong also congratulated Surachart and Pheu Thai for winning the trust of residents in Constituency 9, which covers Lak Si and Chatuchak districts.
He said these results show that the anti-Prayut side has beat the pro-Prayut side and the ultra-leftist has beat the ultra-rightist.
“As I have said earlier, this by-election is a clear indicator of Prayut’s popularity,” he said.
