THAILAND Bangkok inaugurates the new Senate, which is no longer appointed by the military

District and provincial delegates voted today in the Thai capital. But the future of the government is uncertain due to allegations (by outgoing senators) against Prime Minister Srettha Thavisin. While former Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra, accused of lese majeste, remains the ruling party’s point of reference.

Bangkok () – In Bangkok, delegates elected at district and provincial levels voted today to appoint members of the Senate, according to a new law that replaces the appointment of members, which was previously in the hands of the military, with a complex electoral mechanism.

Today was the third and decisive round of a process that began on June 9 with voting in the districts and continued at the provincial level among the 2,989 candidates who presented 20 professional groups for the 200 seats of the new Senate. The formation of the previous one – which ended in May – had been decided by the Armed Forces that took power with a coup d’état in May 2014. In 2019 the Army had assumed a political appearance in anticipation of the vote for the National Assembly and Precisely, the new Senate election.

However, this time the Upper House will also have peculiar characteristics. The Senate allows or denies the promotion of reforms, but after last year’s elections it prevented the reformists from taking power.

So far there have been many complaints of interference during the various electoral phases of recent weeks and it has also been pointed out that in all probability the large families that control the economic power in the country (and have always been able to influence politics and society) They will have a substantial presence in the Senate. The novelty, at least for the turbulent recent history, is that both Houses of Parliament will not be controlled by the military nor will they register the capillary presence of men from the Armed Forces, despite the fact that in the National Assembly the pro-military Palang Pracharath party forms the majority. government led by its historical enemy, the Pheu Thai.

As some have already anticipated, it is possible that after the Senate elections there will be a confrontation within the majority, following the trend to increasingly marginalize the military from public life.

Another unknown is the judges’ decisions expected in July. One of them refers to the complaint – presented by outgoing senators – of possible abuses of power by the current Prime Minister Srettha Thavisin, a member of Pheu Thai; the other, about the dissolution of Future Forward, a party that he won in the May 2023 elections but was later excluded from power. The current parliamentary majority was born from a strategic agreement contrary to the popular will and now risks faltering, if not collapsing, due among other things to the decisions of former Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra. Shinawatra returned from his voluntary exile almost a year ago, was imprisoned for a short period, regained his freedom and has now been sent to trial for lese majeste, but remains the main figure of Pheu Thai, which is currently led by his daughter, Paetongtarn.