‘New breed’ senators to nominate Nanthana for Senate Speaker
The so-called group of 30 “new-breed” senators will nominate their leader, Nanthana Nanthawaropas, to contest for the post of Senate Speaker, they announced late on Saturday.
The group announced at 10.19pm that they would also nominate Lae Dilokwithayarat and Angkhana Neelapaijit to contest for the posts of Deputy Speakers.
The newly elected Senate will convene its first meeting on Tuesday, July 23, when it will have to elect the Speaker and two deputies.
The new-breed senators group said the three candidates would announce their visions on Tuesday morning to try to win support from other senators.
The group of 30, mostly from the media and non-governmental organisations, call themselves “new breed” senators, saying they are free and independent from control by any political parties or power groups.
Meanwhile, Thewarit Maneechai, a member of the new-breed group, admitted on Saturday that his group had a low chance of winning the Speaker and deputy posts.
Thewarit explained that his group would have to compete with groups of senators with connections to political parties that are larger in number.
Worse still, he said his group would have to contest against another group of some 36 senators, who called themselves “the independent senators” group.
That group is led by Boonsong Noisophon, who eyes a Deputy Speaker post, Thewarit said.
He said some members of the new-breed group also are counted as members of the independent group.
