Five small parties on Thursday declared their opposition to Gen Prayut Chan-o-cha returning as prime minister after the March 24 election and ruled out the possibility of aligning themselves with pro-regime parties.
The parties are the Grin, Moderate and Green parties, as well as the Commoners' Party and Commoner Party of Thailand.
They also pledged to amend the junta-backed constitution and demanded the 250 senators picked by the National Council for Peace and Order (NCPO) respect the will of the people by allowing whichever party wins the most House seats to form a government.
Commoners' Party leader, Lertsak Kamkongsak, said amending the constitution is a must and the main change will concern the Senate's power.
Even though it is constitutional for the Senate to take part in choosing the prime minister, it is still unfair and undemocratic, he said at the October 14 Memorial where the parties announced their stand yesterday.
"We won't join hands with Gen Prayut Chan-o-cha when parliament votes for a new prime minister because he stole power from Thais and kept it for five years. It's now time to put an end to his regime once and for all," Mr Lertsak said.
Tanaporn Sriyakool, leader of the Commoner Party of Thailand, called on parties to honour the principle any likely coalition arrangement should get the support of more than half the House of Representatives.
"That had been the norm but the junta-backed constitution changed the threshold. Gen Prayut's prolonged stay will only create conflicts. We need to stop him and the parties that support him from destroying this principle," he said.
Mr Tanaporn also condemned pro-regime parties that recently threatened to take to the streets in protest if pro-democracy parties won the election or warned of another military coup.
"We call on Thais not to support parties that back Gen Prayut's return to power as well as parties not declaring whether they intend to support the pro-regime bloc or not. There are only two camps in this election -- those for or against Gen Prayut's return to power," he said.
Green Party leader Pongsa Chunam proposed revoking NCPO orders that infringe on community rights, such as forest reclamation policies that affected forest dwellers.
