Anutin elected as Thailand's new Prime Minister

On the same day, the Proud Thai Party and the For Thai Party nominated Anutin and Chaigerson as candidates respectively. According to the Thai Constitution, a candidate for Prime Minister can be elected with the support of more than half of the existing 492 members of the House of Commons. Anutin will become the 32nd Prime Minister of Thailand and the third Prime Minister to be welcomed within two years.

Anutin, 58 years old, is a Thai Chinese with parents from Guangdong. He once said in an interview that he speaks Cantonese every day at home. Anutin received his university education in the United States and returned to Thailand to take over his family's architecture business. At the age of 30, he entered the Thai political arena and served as an advisor to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Deputy Prime Minister, Minister of Interior, and Minister of Health. Since 2012, he has been the leader of Thailand's third largest party, the Proud Thai Party. After the outbreak of COVID-19 epidemic, Anutin led Thailand's epidemic prevention policy and became a household name.

On the 5th, Peng Nian, director of the Hong Kong Asian Studies Center, analyzed to the Hong Kong China News Agency that the first thing Anutin will handle after taking office will be to adjust to the policies of the Thai Communist Party, including stopping the distribution of money to the people. The second thing is to prepare for parliamentary elections and prepare for amending the constitution, fulfilling the promise to the People's Party. If you have spare energy, you also need to urgently deal with the Thai Cambodian border conflict and revitalize Thailand's tourism industry.

Can Anutin achieve his goal? Peng Nian pointed out that although Anutin's past experience qualifies him for the position of Prime Minister, the upcoming general election in four months and subsequent re-election of Prime Minister means that Anutin will only serve as a transitional Prime Minister for a short period of four months, making it difficult for him to handle the four major issues. During this period, Anutin's position was stable, but his ability to allocate resources was very limited. The People's Party did not enter the cabinet, and the Phet Thai Party became the opposition party. Anutin led a minority government, which would face significant constraints and obstacles in parliament if policies were to be implemented.

Peng Nianxu pointed out that Anutin plays a firefighting role and is expected to focus on short-term coping, and does not expect him to have too many outstanding governing achievements. If the preparation work before the election can be done well, the Thai Myanmar border can be controlled well, and border disputes cannot be provoked, it is already considered successful.

Regarding the policy of the Anutin government towards China, Peng Nian pointed out that all political parties in Thailand have a friendly tone towards China, and Anutin personally advocates maintaining cooperation with China. And Anutin needs to focus on domestic affairs, I believe it will continue the Thai party's policy towards China, and there will be no new policy towards China introduced.

As for the political situation in Thailand four months later, Peng Nian believes that a new election means that both the Phet Thai Party and the Proud Thai Party can recommend their prime minister candidates. But the possibility of the Thai Party winning the general election is unlikely, and the number of seats will be reduced. The political life has basically ended. The People's Party may win the most seats, and if they can support the Proud Thai Party, the probability of forming a coalition government is high, and Anutin is likely to be re elected as Prime Minister. During the election period, it is expected that there will be various interest exchanges and attacks in the Thai political arena, and small-scale protests may occur at the social level, but there will be basically no nationwide protests, demonstrations, riots, or military confrontations.