As election nears, Varawut projects even more confidence than usual
Chart Thai Pattana leader Varawut Silpa-archa claims he is confident he will be eligible to be elected prime minister after the May 14 election, even though his party won just 10 seats in 2019 and recent polls show it struggling to gain the support of 1% of voters nationwide.
He is confident his party will win more than 25 seats in Sunday’s general election, and this will be enough for his party to propose him as a possible prime minister when the House of Representatives and Senate choose Thailand’s next premier, Varawut told reporters on Thursday.
Any political party with more than 5% of the Lower House’s seats, or 25, can propose their candidate for prime minister, according to Section 159 of the Constitution.
Varawut also told reporters that his party will not negotiate with any other parties about the formation of the next government until after the election because the results of the upcoming vote are too difficult to forecast.
Still, he drew some firm lines.
Any party that wants to form a coalition government with him must accept Chart Thai Pattana’s policies. These include drafting a new constitution within 100 days and maintaining the monarchy's status.
Previously, Chart Thai Pattana said a new constitution should follow the model of the one drafted in 1997. The so-called "People’s Constitution" is considered the most democratic of Thailand’s 20 constitutions enacted since the country became a constitutional monarchy in 1932.
The 1997 Constitution was supported by Varawut’s father, former premier Banharn Silpa-archa.
Varawut also urged his party’s MP candidates to meet as many voters as they can in person during the final days of the campaign.
They need to educate voters about the voting process, explaining that voters may be confused by the two-ballot system, he said, explaining that the constituency list has numbers for each MP, while the party list assigns one number to each political party.
Varawut is scheduled to hold another campaign rally on Friday in Suphan Buri, which is the party’s stronghold and the home of the Silpa-archa family.
The party’s predecessor, the Thai Nation Party, swept every seat in Suphan Buri province in the 2005 and 2008 general elections. It was dissolved for electoral fraud by the Constitutional Court in 2008 and changed its name to the Chart Thai Pattana Party (Thai Nation Development Party). Outside its home province, however, the new party has struggled to gain support.
