House speaker chooses to wait for charter court’s ruling before setting date for PM vote

Wan Noor, also the House speaker, was on Monday referring to a comment made by Senator Wanchai Sornsiri that the next round of voting should be held on Friday as it is an astrologically auspicious date for the country to have a new PM and end the political impasse.

Wan Noor said the next voting session may be scheduled either on Friday or next Tuesday if the Constitutional Court decides on the ombudsmen’s petition in a manner that will allow the vote to go ahead.

The court is scheduled to decide on Wednesday whether or not to accept the ombudsmen’s petition for review.

The ombudsmen asked the court to invalidate a parliamentary resolution that blocked the renomination of Move Forward PM candidate Pita Limjaroenrat based on a meeting regulation that the same motion cannot be submitted twice in the same session.

The ombudsmen also asked the court to suspend the next PM vote until the court issues a ruling on the petition.

Wan Noor, meanwhile, said the next round of voting would depend on the court’s decision. If the court accepts the petition, then lawmakers will have to wait to see if the court suspends the PM vote.

He said the court will meet in the morning, so its decision should be known by the afternoon.

“There can be several scenarios related to the court decision, so we must wait to see it first before we can schedule the next joint sitting of MPs and senators to elect the PM,” Wan Noor said.

He added that as soon as the court announces its decision, he will discuss scheduling the vote with whips and representatives of both sides of the House.