Thailand’s Pheu Thai Party announces a seven-party coalition

Thailand’s Pheu Thai Party has announced a seven-party coalition which it claims has won a majority of Lower House seats in Sunday’s general election, the first since a 2014 military coup.

The party's prime ministerial candidate Sudarat Keyuraphan and leaders from five other parties - Future Forward, Thai Liberal, Prachachart, Pheu Chart, and Thai People Power - declared their will to stop the inheritance of the National Council for Peace and Order's (NCPO) power during a meeting in Bangkok.

The New Economics Party, which is under the leadership of Mingkwan Sangsuwan, was not present at the meeting to sign the agreement but agreed to be part of the alliance opposing the NCPO.

Although the alliance claimed to have no fewer than 255 seats so far, the support only gives them a slim majority in the 500-seat House of Representatives.

Official election results will not be out until May 9, but Pheu Thai has bagged the highest number of Lower House seats.

Only 350 seats in the House of Representatives are directly elected “constituency seats” where the candidate with the most votes wins the district in a first-past-the-post system.

The remaining 150 seats will come from the so-called national party lists under a system of proportional representation, which is yet to be calculated based on the total number of votes cast in the March 24 general election.

However, the coalition would likely fall short of electing a prime minister, which requires a combined vote with the upper house of parliament, the Senate, which is entirely appointed by the military government that in 2014 overthrew an elected Pheu Thai government.

Partial results still indicate that the pro-army Palang Pracharat party would have enough votes to keep Prayut Chan-Ocha on as prime minister.

But an opposition alliance majority in the lower house, the House of Representatives, could lead to deadlock.