Prawit has series of immediate tasks as caretaker PM

Prawit automatically took over as caretaker prime minister after a majority of Constitutional Court judges voted on Wednesday to accept an opposition petition for deliberation on Prime Minister Prayut Chan-o-cha’s tenure and suspended him from duty until a ruling is made.

At 10am, Prawit was scheduled to preside over the national disaster warning system executive committee via video conference at the Five Provinces Bordering Forest Preservation Foundation in Bangkok’s Phaya Thai district.

Prawit was later scheduled to meet Organisation of Islamic Cooperation secretary-general Hissein Brahim Taha, who is visiting Thailand as a guest of the Foreign Ministry, at Government House in Bangkok’s Dusit district.

Prawit is expected to preside over a Defence Council meeting, even though Prayut is allowed to handle the task as defence minister.

According to the Prime Minister’s Order No 237/2563, any of the other five deputy prime ministers can be appointed as caretaker prime minister apart from Prawit:

• Deputy Prime Minister Wissanu Krea-ngam

• Public Health Minister Anutin Charnvirakul

• Commerce Minister Jurin Laksanawisit

• Foreign Minister Don Pramudwinai

• Energy Minister Supattanapong Punmeechaow.

Wissanu earlier said that Prawit now has authority to give any order related to personnel administration and budget approval due to the Constitutional Court’s suspension of Prayut.

He added that Prawit could also dissolve Parliament, but this would be hard to do so.