Thailand's Pheu Thai party to decide PM candidate as parliamentary vote looms

BANGKOK — Thailand's Pheu Thai party to decide PM candidate as parliamentary vote looms The biggest party in Thailand's caretaker government met on Thursday (Aug 15) to choose a successor for dismissed premier Srettha Thavisin, as it races to shore up alliances a day ahead of a pivotal parliamentary vote on a new prime minister.

Thailand is again gripped by political drama less than a year after real estate mogul Srettha rose to power following weeks of parliamentary deadlock, with his Pheu Thai Party scrambling to retain control and deliver on its stalled populist agenda amid a stuttering economy.

The Constitutional Court's dismissal of Srettha on Wednesday was the latest hammer blow for Pheu Thai, the electoral juggernaut of the billionaire Shinawatra family that has locked horns for two decades with Thailand's influential establishment and royalist military.

Pheu Thai said its executives would decide in the afternoon on one of two eligible prime ministerial candidates — Chaikasem Nitisiri, 75, a former attorney-general and justice minister, and its inexperienced leader Paetongtarn Shinawatra, the 37-year-old daughter of divisive political heavyweight Thaksin Shinawatra.

"The process of forming a new government shouldn't take more than three weeks," party secretary-general Sorawong Thienthong said.

Uncertainty about political upheaval could add more strain to an underperforming economy that Srettha had hoped to revive with a raft of stimulus measures, some that could now be in question, including his vaunted plan to give 10,000 baht (S$375) handouts to 50 million people.

Srettha was the movement's fourth premier to be removed by a court ruling and his downfall could indicate the end of an uneasy detente between Thaksin