More than 43% of Thais said Pita Limjaroenrat, the sole prime ministerial candidate of the Move Forward Party, should be re-nominated repeatedly until he is finally endorsed if he failed in the first round of vote in parliament, according to an opinion survey by the National Institute of Development Administration, or Nida Poll.
The poll was conducted by telephone interviews with 1,310 people on July 11-12, before parliament convened on July 13 to select the prime minister when Mr Pita was nominated for the post of prime minister. He needed at least 375 votes from the 500 elected House members and the 250 military-appointed senators but managed to get only 324.
Asked what should happen if Mr Pita failed to get the needed votes in the first round, the answers were:
• 43.21% said Mr Pita should be re-nominated repeatedly until he finally gets enough votes
• 20.69% said he should be re-nominated only once or twice
• 12.98% said the Move Forward Party should back down from some policies opposed by senators
• 7.94% said the Pheu Thai Party, which came second in terms of MP numbers, should be immediately allowed to lead the formation of a government
• 4.88% said the Move Forward Party should invite other parties in the former government bloc to join the eight-party alliance to increase support votes
• 2.67% said there should be protest rallies to apply pressure on senators to vote for Mr Pita
• 2.52% said the Pheu Thai Party should immediately take over the Move Forward Party in forming a government
• 2.29% said the Move Forward Party should immediately announce to take the opposition role
• 2.06% said the Pheu Thai Party should immediately form a new alliance to form a government
• 0.76% had no answer or were not interested
Asked who they thought stands a good chance of being nominated for the prime minister's post if Mr Pita failed to get enough votes, the answers were:
• 38.55% mentioned Paetongtarn Shinawatra of the Pheu Thai Party
• 35.04% Srettha Thavisin of the Pheu Thai Party
• 6.79% Gen Prayut Chan-o-cha of the United Thai Nation Party
• 5.42% Gen Prawit Wongsuwon of the Palang Pracharath Party
• 4.27% Anutin Charnvirakul of the Bhumjaithai Party
• 1.45% Jurin Laksanawisit of the Democrat Party
• 1.07% Pirapan Salirathavibhaga of the United Thai Nation Party
• 1.76% combined mentioned Chaikasem Nitisiri of the Pheu Thai Party and Khunying Sudarat and Sita Divari of the Thai Sang Thai Party.
The rest, 5.65%, had no answer or were not interested.