Thai court to decide on election winners’ challenge to derailed PM bid

Thailand’s Constitutional Court was due on Wednesday to decide whether to review a parliamentary decision that blocked a second prime ministerial bid by election winners Move Forward, a move that could end or prolong weeks of political deadlock.
Thailand has been under a caretaker government for five months and its biggest parties in parliament have been unable to form a government after Pita Limjaroenrat, leader of the anti-establishment Move Forward party, was rejected as premier by lawmakers allied with the royalist military.
The court must decide whether there is merit in Move Forward’s challenge to a July 19 decision by legislators that prevented Pita from being nominated for premier for a second time after his failure at the first attempt.
If it declines to review the decision, parliament could schedule a vote within days on the prime ministerial candidacy of businessman and political neophyte Srettha Thavisin, of the second-place Pheu Thai Party.