Parliament will convene on Aug 4 but whether a vote for prime minister takes place will depend on what the Constitutional Court does the day before, according to Parliament President Wan Muhamad Noor Matha.
Mr Wan said on Thursday that the Constitutional Court was likely to decide on Thursday, Aug 3 whether to accept a petition related to the previously rejected renomination for prime minister of Move Forward Party leader Pita Limjaroenrat.
If the court does not accept the petition, parliament could hold a vote for prime minister the following day, said Mr Wan, who is also the House speaker. If it accepts the petition, a parliamentary vote would not take place until the court issues its ruling, possibly a week later.
The next prime ministerial vote is expected to involve a candidate from the Pheu Thai Party, after Move Forward said it would step aside and let its coalition partner attempt to form a government.
A joint sitting of the House and Senate held its first vote for prime minister on July 13 when Mr Pita was the sole candidate. He failed to win a majority vote as many parliamentarians — including all but 13 of the unelected senators — expressed concern about his party’s strong intention to amend Section 112 of the Criminal Code, the lese-majeste law.
On July 19 parliament voted not to consider Mr Pita’s candidacy a second time. Members cited parliamentary regulations stating that a motion that fails once cannot be brought back during the same session. However, many legal experts said the selection of a prime minister is not a motion, and that what parliament did was unconstitutional.
The Move Forward Party was among a number of complainants that filed petitions against the decision with the Constitutional Court through the Ombudsman.
The Ombudsman decided to seek a judicial review and ask the court to postpone the prime ministerial vote to prevent any damage that would be difficult to fix.
Mr Pita pointed out that the parliamentary decision had set a risky precedent, since any prime ministerial candidate nominated from now on would have only one shot at securing a majority vote.
The charter court said this week that it would consider the petition on Aug 3 but did not specify whether it expected to reach a decision or issue a ruling the same day.
