Foreign news agencies see limited boost for Prayut from court ruling on his tenure as PM
Many foreign news agencies said that the Constitutional Court's verdict on Prime Minister Prayut Chan-o-cha's tenure as head of government on Friday was not a surprise.
The court ruled on Friday that Prayut could continue as prime minister because he had not served the maximum eight-year term stipulated in the current charter.
US based news agency Associated Press (AP) said the court’s decision had been widely expected, since it has generally ruled in the government’s favour in a series of political cases.
"The judiciary, especially the Constitutional Court, and the military are strong defenders of the country’s conservative establishment, whose most important pillar they consider to be the monarchy," it said.
AP also expected Prayut to face political challenges at the beginning of next year when Parliament’s four-year term ends, adding that Prayut's popularity is low, with critics saying he has mishandled the economy and the Covid-19 crisis.
It also claimed that Thailand’s traditional conservative ruling class, including the military, felt that former prime minister Thaksin Shinawatra’s popularity posed a threat to the country’s monarchy as well as their own influence.
"The courts have been stalwart defenders of the established order and ruled consistently against Thaksin and other challengers," it added.
Meanwhile, UK-based news agency Reuters said the Constitutional Court's decision is considered a big boost for Prayut.
It added that Prayut is a staunch royalist whose premiership has been beset by attempts to unseat him, including four house censure motions, a conflict-of-interest case and protests challenging his leadership and the monarchy.
Analysts told US-based newspaper, The New York Times, it is unlikely that Palang Pracharath Party would keep Prayut on as a candidate for the next general election because he would not be allowed to serve the full four years of the term. The Constitutional Court counted Prayut’s term from the time the new Constitution was promulgated in 2017, based on which Prayut would be completing six years as PM at the end of the current house term in 2023.
They also claimed that Prayut had largely failed to come up with policies to boost Thailand’s economy, the second-largest in Southeast Asia.
"Even though Thai officials estimate the economy this year will grow from 2.7 per cent to 3.2 per cent, it is putting Thailand on course for the slowest expansion in Southeast Asia," analysts said.
