“I accept it but I’m not giving up,” Pita Limjaroenrat said after he failed to win a majority vote from parliament for his premiership on Thursday evening.

The Move Forward Party leader received 324 votes in his favour, 182 votes against and 199 abstentions in the first prime ministerial vote. The result left him 51 votes short of his target.

After the vote result was announced, Mr Pita told reporters that there were a lot of pressures on senators because many of them were absent on Thursday.

“There were pressures and several incentives,” he said without elaborating. “They were not allowed to vote in line with the people.”

More than 30 senators were absent from the meeting. Some had gone abroad, Pita said.

“I thank the 13 senators who voted in favour. I will find the reasons why many of them were absent,” he added.

The second and third rounds of voting will be on July 19 and 20. It is not known yet if Mr Pita’s name will be put forward on one or both days.

Some commentators have suggested that if the party decided to compromise and drop plans to change the lese-majeste law, Mr Pita might be able to win a majority in the next round of voting.

After Thursday’s vote, reporters asked Mr Pita if his party would change its stance on the law, Section 112 of the Criminal Code.

“It will remain the same,” he insisted. “Today we had a lot of chances to explain the matter to the parliament and that was a good development.”