The current Thai Prime Minister, Prayut Chan-o-cha, has voiced his belief that his United Thai Nation Party will secure enough seats in the forthcoming election for him to be nominated as the future prime minister.
Nonetheless, he also stated his willingness to accept any outcome the polls produce. “I will just go home. Where else could I go?” he remarked when questioned about whether he would retire from politics if his party and its allies fail to gather sufficient support to establish a coalition.
During an interview on Saturday, the departing Prime Minister stated that recent opinion polls indicate progress for him and his United Thai Nation party.
While Prayut is a prime ministerial candidate for the United Thai Nation, he is not competing for an MP position. Each political party can put forward up to three candidates for prime minister in the election, but they must win at least 25 House seats for their nominations to be valid.
“I am confident that we will win at least 25 seats,” he stated when asked about his chances of regaining power after the election, “but it depends on whether the people will give me enough votes to continue to work. If not, then someone else will take over,” he added.
Prayut acknowledged his decision to part ways with the Palang Pracharath Party due to disagreements with individuals associated with its leader, Gen Prawit Wongsuwan.
In the 2019 general election, Prayut became prime minister representing Palang Pracharath, but a rift with its leader, Prawit, led him to join the United Thai Nation.
Despite their political disagreements, Prayut maintains that he and Prawit remain “brothers.”
Prawit, who is also campaigning to become the nation’s next prime minister, has been distancing himself from Prayut, and the 2014 coup that the latter engineered, attempting to present himself as a peace-maker prepared to resolve the country’s prolonged political polarization.
