"Chaichana" Confirms "Democrat Party" Will Not Change Its Decision to Abstain from Voting for Prime Minister

Today (18 March) 9:25 AM at the Parliament, Mr. Chaiชนะ Dejdecho, Deputy Leader of the Democrat Party (DP), gave an interview regarding whether the DP would change its mind after deciding to abstain from voting for the Prime Minister. He stated that there will be no change because the party has already made a decision, and all party members must abide by it. He affirmed that the DP voted in the same direction, a unified decision to abstain.

When asked whether the DP's abstention was seen as a move to wait to join a government, Mr. Chaiชนะ said he didn't think so and that the explanation for the abstention would be given by Abhisit Vejjajiva, the party leader. We will debate in parliament and answer all questions about why the party decided to abstain. Today, it's clear that the decision was to abstain, and we need to wait to hear Mr. Abhisit's speech. The Democrat Party has resolved that if the debate today is opened, we will dedicate the allocated time solely to Mr. Abhisit.

When asked if the government would allow a debate on the prime minister's qualifications, Mr. Chaichana said that he thinks that based on the practice of electing a prime minister in the previous parliament, there was always an opportunity to debate. This time, he thinks it's clear that each party will send 1-2 representatives to debate. He believes that the debate will be about stating reasons and perhaps raising issues for the new government to address.

When asked further about working with the opposition coalition parties, including the People's Party, Mr. Chaichana said that he thinks working with the opposition coalition will begin once a prime minister is elected. After the prime minister and cabinet are formed, the opposition coalition will hold meetings to further their efforts.

“I've seen media reports saying that the opposition parties lack unity. I think the opposition's legislative function…” "We have a duty to scrutinize the government. The most important thing is to gather information and present it in parliament and answer the public clearly. Therefore, unity in terms of votes is not as clear as having information to scrutinize the government's work," said Mr. Chaichana.

Mr. Chaichana added, "I urge future governments to clearly answer the public's questions: 1. How many days will our current energy reserves, whether oil or electricity, last? The government claims oil will last 90-95 days – how true is that? 2. The government must seriously investigate gas stations that hoard oil and indirectly increase prices to sell to the public. 3. What economic measures will the government implement when oil shortages affect agricultural product prices and other sectors? 4. I would like to suggest to the government that the start of reducing energy consumption must begin with the government itself. For example, if there are 300,000 government vehicles and the government has a measure to save 10 liters of fuel per vehicle, that's 3 million liters per day. If the price is 30 baht per liter, that would generate an additional 90 million baht per day, or 2.7 billion baht per year. Therefore, I urge the government to implement measures on this matter."

Photo : Weeraphat Ratsameerueangrong