Sawt Falasteen - Thai tycoon leads pack as parliament votes for new PM

Since 2023 elections, the Pheu Thai party of the powerful Shinawatra family has monopolised Thailand's top office, but a court ruling last week saw dynasty heiress Paetongtarn Shinawatra sacked from the post.

Rushing into the power vacuum, construction magnate Anutin Charnvirakul has secured backing from enough opposition blocs likely to give him a comfortable majority in the fractured lower house.

Voting is due from around 10:00 am (0300 GMT) in the parliament building constructed by his family firm.

"The only common enemy among different political parties is whoever is an enemy of the country," Anutin told reporters on Thursday. "We need to stand united."

Anutin, 58, has previously served as deputy prime minister, interior minister and health minister -- but is perhaps most famous for delivering on a promise in 2022 to legalise cannabis.

Charged with the tourist-dependent kingdom's Covid-19 response, he accused Westerners of spreading the virus and was forced to apologise after a backlash.

Anutin once backed Paetongtarn's coalition, but abandoned her this summer in apparent outrage over her conduct during a border row with neighbouring Cambodia.

Thailand's Constitutional Court found on August 29 that conduct breached ministerial ethics and fired her after only a year in power.

Going it alone, Anutin has gained the crucial 143-seat backing of the largest opposition People's Party -- but only on the condition that parliament is dissolved within four months for fresh elections.

Nonetheless, with reliable support from his Bhumjaithai Party -- the third largest in parliament -- and a smattering of other allies he looks set to take the helm.

The Shinawatra's Pheu Thai party is still governing in a caretaker capacity and made a last-ditch effort to forestall Friday's vote by requesting the palace dissolve parliament.

Royal officials rejected the bid, according acting prime minister Phumtham Wechayachai, citing "disputed legal issues" around Pheu Thai's ability to make such a move as an interim administration.

With the ballot due, Pheu Thai has pledged to put forward its own candidate for prime minister -- Chaikasem Nitisiri, who served as justice minister under a previous Shinawatra prime minister.

"It does not matter if we win or lose the vote," party secretary general Sorawong Thienthong told AFP, striking a fatalistic tone on Thursday.

The Shinawatra clan have been a mainstay of Thai politics for the past two decades, cultivating a populist brand and becoming a jousting partner with the pro-military, pro-monarchy establishment.

But they have been increasingly bedevilled by legal and political setbacks, the felling of Paetongtarn another heavy blow.

A.AbuSaada--SF-PST