Move Forward Party leader Pita Limjaroenrat greets supporters during a rally to thank voters ahead of the vote for a new prime minister on July 13, in Bangkok, Thailand, July 9, 2023. REUTERS/Athit Perawongmetha/File Photo
BANGKOK (Reuters) - Thailand's Pita Limjaroenrat vowed on Thursday not to quit in his quest to become prime minister, after suffering defeat in a parliamentary vote fraught by abstentions and no-shows as conservative forces closed ranks to keep him at bay.
The leader of the progressive Move Forward Party, the surprise winners of the May 14 election, was unopposed in the showdown in the bicameral parliament, but fell 51 votes short of the top job after being thwarted by a Senate appointed by the royalist military after a 2014 coup.
Another vote is expected next week, which 42-year-old Pita can contest if nominated again by his eight-party alliance. To win he needs the votes of more than half of parliament's 749 members.
"I accept it but I'm not giving up," he told reporters.
"I will not surrender and will use this time to garner more support."
The vote was a critical test of Pita's political clout and a gauge of opposition to his party's anti-establishment agenda, which includes removing the military from politics, dismantling business monopolies and changing a law that prescribes long jail terms for insulting the monarchy.
Move Forward and its alliance partner, Pheu Thai, thrashed conservative pro-military parties in the election, seen widely as a resounding rejection of nearly a decade of government led or backed by the military.
The defeat was the latest blow in a torrid two days for the U.S.-educated Pita, who saw two legal complaints against him gain momentum on the eve of the vote, including a recommendation to disqualify him, prompting hundreds of demonstrators to gather and warn of moves afoot to keep Move Forward from power.
INFLUENTIAL RIVALS
The cases are the latest twist in a two-decade struggle for power fraught with coups, court interventions, party dissolutions and at times violent street protests.
Political uncertainty has pulled Thailand's main stock index down by 11% so far this year, verses a 5% gain for MSCI's global emerging markets index, with foreign investors net sellers for five straight months to the end of June, offloading more than $3 billion net of Thai shares.
Pita's determination to pursue Move Forward's controversial agenda has put him at odds with a powerful nexus of conservatives and old-money families with influence over democratic institutions, which has loomed large over Thai politics for decades.
Thanakorn Wangboonkongchana, a lawmaker with the army-backed United Thai Nation Party, said a plan to change article 112 of the criminal code, which prohibits insults of the monarchy, would be Move Forward's undoing.
"We cannot support them, or any coalition that includes them," he said. "We will not support them."
Move Forward's rise stunned political heavyweights with big electoral war chests, after it utilised social media to court massive youth support and win over key conservative strongholds in cities including the capital Bangkok.
Pita won 324 votes, which was no match for the 199 abstentions and 182 votes against him, and 44 no-shows. He was backed by only 13 members of the conservative-leaning Senate.
Pita said senators could not vote freely and he would re-strategise to try to convince them to follow the will of the people.
"Many were not voting as they wished. I understand there is a lot of pressure on them, and incentives," he said, without elaborating.
"I think there is still time to get more votes."
(Reporting by Chayut Setboonsarng; Panarat Thepgumpanat, Panu Wongcha-um; Additional reporting by Orathai Sriring and by Tom Westbrook in Singapore; Writing by Martin Petty; Editing by Kanupriya Kapoor, William Maclean)
