Prayut ‘confident’ after legal team submits tenure defence
General Prayut Chan-o-cha appeared confident after his legal team submitted its case on his tenure as prime minister, a source at Government House said on Friday.
The Constitutional Court accepted the opposition’s petition to rule on Prayut’s tenure expiry on August 24, also suspending him from duty and giving him 15 days to submit his defence.
Prayut’s legal team submitted the document to the court on Thursday (September 1).
The source said the 30-page document cites legal principles to identify the start date of Prayut’s tenure as prime minister. “The court did not reveal when the ruling will be given, and it could ask Prayut to provider further explanation on specific topics if needed,” the source said.
Under Article 158 of the 2017 Constitution, a prime minister cannot hold office for more than eight years in total, whether consecutively or not.
The start date for Prayut’s eight-year tenure is disputed.
Many insist his eight-year term started when Prayut first assumed office on August 24, 2014, following the military coup he led in May that year. This would mean his tenure expired last week on Wednesday.
Others say his tenure as PM began when the current Constitution came into force on April 6, 2017. A third group views that it should be counted from when Prayut assumed the premiership on June 9, 2019, following the general election in March that year.
