Chaikasem to be nominated as new PM at House meeting Friday

Chaikasem Nitisiri, a former justice minister and a senior politician of Pheu Thai Party, is tipped to be nominated as the new prime minister, according to informed sources.

House Speaker Wan Muhamad Noor Matha, meanwhile, has reportedly called a special House meeting on Friday to vote on the new prime minister.

The sources said all the parties in the Pheu Thai-led coalition government agreed to Chaikasem’s nomination during an urgently-called meeting only hours after the Constitutional Court dismissed Srettha Thavisin as prime minister for breaching professional ethnics.

The meeting was held at the residence of former prime minister Thaksin Shinawatra, the de facto leader of Pheu Thai, and attended by key leaders of all the coalition parties.

Chaikasem is one of the three prime ministerial candidates of Pheu Thai. The other two are Srettha and Paetongtarn Shinawatra, who is the party leader and Thaksin’s daughter.

Chaikasem, 76, also a former attorney general, is reportedly chosen over Paetongtarn as it is believed that Thaksin is not confident his daughter is ready for the top job under the present political circumstances.

Since the parties in the coalition command a comfortable majority in the House of Representatives with 314 MPs, Chaikasem’s nomination is unlikely to face any real challenge.

Meanwhile, Deputy Prime Minister Phumtham Wechayachai has changed his flight to return to Bangkok from Kazakhstan immediately, after he learned of the Constitutional Court’s decision today.

Phumtham has been in trade talks with Kazakhstan’s prime minister, on behalf of Prime Minister Srettha. He is due to land in Bangkok tomorrow morning.

Phumtham, who is expected to assume the caretaker prime minister post, will convene a meeting of Pheu Thai MPs and to meet with coalition parties regarding how they will work together in the next government.

With the Pheu Thai MPs, he said that he will discuss the party’s candidates for nomination as the next prime minister.

Phumtham said the caretaker government will carry on working within the scope and authority of a caretaker administration and that he will chair the planned mobile cabinet meeting in Ayutthaya province.