Thai Sang Thai’s MP the first to show up after EC’s endorsement
Thai Sang Thai party’s Rampoon Tantiwanichanont was the first MP to show up at the Election Commission (EC) head office in Bangkok on Tuesday morning to receive the document approving the election result.
The EC on Monday endorsed all 400 constituency MPs and 100 party-list MPs for the House of Representatives from the May 14 general election.
The approved MPs have until June 24 to pick up election victory certificates, which will be used to report to the Parliament to officially become members of the House of Representatives.
First-time MP Rampoon, who arrived at the EC’s office well in time for its 8.30am opening, said she travelled from her hometown in the northeastern province Ubon Ratchathani last night and arrived at the office at 8am in a bid to avoid the traffic.
She said she wanted to start working as an MP as soon as possible.
“People elected me to fix the problems in Ubon Ratchathani,” she said. “I intend to make the temporary border checkpoint at Chong Ta U into a permanent one to increase Thai-Laos cross-border trade.”
Before running for the MP position, Rampoon worked as a member of Ubon Ratchathani’s Provincial Council for 19 years.
Pheu Thai Party’s Phumiphat Phacharasap, an MP from Nakhon Phanom province showed up second on Tuesday. He said he intended to work on drugs problems in the northeastern region.
Both Thai Sang Thai and Pheu Thai are in the coalition led by Move Forward Party, which won the most MP seats in the May 14 general election.
The current Constitution stipulates the first House of Representatives meeting must be convened within 15 days of the certification of 95% of MPs. The main agenda of the meeting is to elect the House speaker.
It is anticipated that the vote to elect the prime minister will take place by mid-July, before the swearing-in by mid-to-late July.
The PM candidate would need to obtain at least 376 votes from both the lower and upper houses.
