Acting Thai government moves to dissolve parliament

THAILAND'S acting prime minister moved to dissolve parliament yesterday, his party said, after the largest opposition group backed a rival candidate to lead the country.

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The decision — a potentially legally fraught one - could see the kingdom hold fresh elections before the year’s end, just two years after it last went to the polls in May 2023.

A power vacuum has consumed Thailand’s top office since last week, when prime minister Paetongtarn Shinawatra was ousted by the Constitutional Court over an ethics breach.

Her Pheu Thai party - still governing in a caretaker capacity - had courted the power-broking opposition People’s Party to back its new candidate for prime minister.

But the People’s Party instead declared its support for conservative tycoon Anutin Charnvirakul.

Moments later, Pheu Thai secretary general Sorawong Thienthong said that acting Prime Minister Phumtham Wechayachai “has submitted a house dissolution decree”.

Whether a caretaker government has the power to dissolve parliament is a hotly debated question.