Pita Limjaroenrat’s progressive party may have won the most number of seats in Thailand’s general election, but it is far from certain that the 42-year-old businessman will succeed in becoming the Southeast Asian nation’s next prime minister.
The charismatic leader of the Move Forward Party, which stunned Thailand’s royalist military elite with its May 14 election victory, was the sole candidate put forward in Thursday’s parliamentary vote for prime minister.
But he faces several hurdles.
While Pita’s eight-party alliance controls 312 seats in the newly elected 500-member lower house, he needs at least 376 votes to become prime minister.
That is because a 250-member Senate appointed by the military following a coup in 2014 also gets to take part in the vote. Many senators have already indicated they will not vote for Pita because of his party’s bold promises to reduce the powers of the royalist military that has long dominated Thai politics. These include revisions to a law that punishes insults to the monarchy, ending military conscription and monopolies in the liquor industry
Even if Pita manages to scrape through in Thursday’s vote, he also faces disqualification from parliament as the Thai election commission claims he violated electoral laws by owning shares in a media company.
On the eve of the crucial vote, the electoral body lodged the case at the Thai Constitutional Court, sparking protests in the country’s capital, Bangkok, and in cities across the country. If the court rules against Pita, he faces up to 10 years in jail and a 20-year ban from politics.
Arriving in parliament ahead of the vote, Pita told reporters that he “will do my best to live up to the hope and support that the people have given me”.
“I will do my best to explain to those senators who still have questions. I’ll use this opportunity to find a consensus.”
Who is Pita?
Colleagues and friends have described Pita as “humble”, “adept”, “open to compromise”, and possessing a “mind and spirit intrinsically directed to public service”.
Born in 1980 to a wealthy and politically-connected family in Thailand, Pita, who is known to his friends as Tim, has previously said that his interest in politics began during his secondary school days in New Zealand.
A “rebellious” teenager who listened to rock and roll and played the guitar, Pita’s family “shipped” him off to the “middle of nowhere in New Zealand” where the only television available was Australian soap operas or debates in parliament, he told the Thai YouTube programme Aim Hour earlier this year.
He said he would listen to speeches by New Zealand’s then-Prime Minister Jim Bolger as he did his homework.
After returning to Thailand, Pita completed an undergraduate degree in finance and banking at Thammasat University in Bangkok, before going on to earn a joint master’s degree from MIT and Harvard in business and public policy.
In his mid 20s, Pita took over the family business, CEO Agrifood, after the death of his father. Although young, his leadership helped the company become one of Asia’s largest producers of rice bran oil, according to his friend Jesus M Acuna.
“Pita’s father represented that stereotypical strong leader figure in the company, and when he passed away, that ship was adrift, and the company would have been lost. So this young guy, remember, he was 25 at that moment. He had to step in. That special challenge where he was able to turn things around and put the ship back on track into a successful business says a lot about his abilities,” said Acuna, a Mexican lawyer who was a classmate of Pita’s at Harvard and a close friend who attended the politician’s wedding in 2012.
He has a “mind and a spirit devoted to public service” and “believes the most important thing you can invest in a country is people – preparing them, giving them the tools to fulfil their personal dreams,” said Acuna.
Pita made his political debut in 2018, when he joined Move Forward’s predecessor party, Future Forward, handling its agricultural policy. He was first elected to parliament in 2019, where he said he gained a new awareness of the “inertia within the system”.
The legislator first drew national attention with a speech in parliament that year about the plight of Thailand’s farmers, who he said were being driven into debt by the high cost of agricultural production.
Later that year, when the Thai constitutional court dissolved Future Forward, and banned its leader from politics, Pita and the party’s remaining legislators formed the Move Forward Party.
He has described the nine years since the military coup of 2014 – the army’s second power grab since 2002 – as a “lost decade” for Thailand, and said in an interview with the Thai Public Broadcasting Service that Move Forward was out to “return common sense to Thai politics”.
“We are about getting things done. We are about decentralising the country, de-monopolising the economy and demilitarising the country,” he added.
‘Progress is not a straight line’
Padipat Sunthiphada, a Move Forward legislator who was recently elected the deputy speaker of Thailand’s parliament, said “Pita knows the problems” of Thailand.
“He wants to change Thailand in not just a quick win, but to change the [governance] structure of Thailand, to change the nation. So he has really good understanding and is brave enough to talk in public [about Thailand’s issues],” he said.
What makes Pita a good leader, Padipat said, was also his openness to compromise and his ability to connect with both the younger and older generations.
“He’s really simple and humble. When we work together, we work as a team and as friends who are equal in the party,” said Padipat.
Sirikanya Tansakul, the Move Forward deputy leader, described Pita as a “very adept person”.
“There are a lot of issues that are very topical. And every time that we discuss new issues, he’s very quick to conceptualise things up and come up with a solution or suggestion or recommendations that we can that we can usefully publish as a party statement,” she told Al Jazeera.
Both of his colleagues also described Pita as a devoted father to his seven-year-old daughter, Pipim.
Pita has sole custody of the girl, according to Thai news outlet Khaosod English, following a bitter and acrimonious divorce in which his former wife filed a lawsuit accusing him of abuse. The petition was dismissed, and Pita has denied the claims saying in an interview earlier this year that “there has never been any domestic abuse in my family” and that he believed in the “rights of women, of families, of children and of politicians”.
Sirikanya said Pita puts his time with his daughter first.
“We have to adjust our schedules to that. Sometimes, from time to time, we have to have a meeting at an odd hour, but he may not be able to make it because of his duties as a parent,” she said.
Speaking to Al Jazeera in mid-June, Sirikanya said she believed Pita would be able to win over the members of the Senate.
“With his qualities of humility and openness to compromise, he could win votes from the Senate. We are hopeful we can get past this,” she said.
The party, she said, was focused on mobilising its supporters.
“We have to have people on our side. That’s why you would have seen him making his time to meet with supporters, voters, and the people in upcountry, in the provinces. I think this is the way that we do politics. We know that we come from the people so we have to maintain their supports in order to win in the parliament,” she said.
Pita, for his part, has consistently ruled out revising the party’s campaign pledges to win the Senate’s backing.
“The choice is to try your best and make sure that you make it happen. Whatever is out of your control will sooner or later happen. Because you think you’re on the right side of history. If that’s the case, then you always have the energy to keep pushing,” he told the YouTube programme AIM Hour in February.
“Progress is not a straight line … it doesn’t happen overnight,” he added.
HALIFAX – Nova Scotia Premier Tim Houston says it’s “disgraceful and demeaning” that a Halifax-area school would request that service members not wear military uniforms to its Remembrance Day ceremony.
Houston’s comments were part of a chorus of criticism levelled at the school — Sackville Heights Elementary — whose administration decided to back away from the plan after the outcry.
A November newsletter from the school in Middle Sackville, N.S., invited Armed Forces members to attend its ceremony but asked that all attendees arrive in civilian attire to “maintain a welcoming environment for all.”
Houston, who is currently running for re-election, accused the school’s leaders of “disgracing themselves while demeaning the people who protect our country” in a post on the social media platform X Thursday night.
“If the people behind this decision had a shred of the courage that our veterans have, this cowardly and insulting idea would have been rejected immediately,” Houston’s post read. There were also several calls for resignations within the school’s administration attached to Houston’s post.
In an email to families Thursday night, the school’s principal, Rachael Webster, apologized and welcomed military family members to attend “in the attire that makes them most comfortable.”
“I recognize this request has caused harm and I am deeply sorry,” Webster’s email read, adding later that the school has the “utmost respect for what the uniform represents.”
Webster said the initial request was out of concern for some students who come from countries experiencing conflict and who she said expressed discomfort with images of war, including military uniforms.
Her email said any students who have concerns about seeing Armed Forces members in uniform can be accommodated in a way that makes them feel safe, but she provided no further details in the message.
Webster did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
At a news conference Friday, Houston said he’s glad the initial request was reversed but said he is still concerned.
“I can’t actually fathom how a decision like that was made,” Houston told reporters Friday, adding that he grew up moving between military bases around the country while his father was in the Armed Forces.
“My story of growing up in a military family is not unique in our province. The tradition of service is something so many of us share,” he said.
“Saying ‘lest we forget’ is a solemn promise to the fallen. It’s our commitment to those that continue to serve and our commitment that we will pass on our respects to the next generation.”
Liberal Leader Zach Churchill also said he’s happy with the school’s decision to allow uniformed Armed Forces members to attend the ceremony, but he said he didn’t think it was fair to question the intentions of those behind the original decision.
“We need to have them (uniforms) on display at Remembrance Day,” he said. “Not only are we celebrating (veterans) … we’re also commemorating our dead who gave the greatest sacrifice for our country and for the freedoms we have.”
NDP Leader Claudia Chender said that while Remembrance Day is an important occasion to honour veterans and current service members’ sacrifices, she said she hopes Houston wasn’t taking advantage of the decision to “play politics with this solemn occasion for his own political gain.”
“I hope Tim Houston reached out to the principal of the school before making a public statement,” she said in a statement.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Nov. 8, 2024.
REGINA – Saskatchewan Opposition NDP Leader Carla Beck says she wants to prove to residents her party is the government in waiting as she heads into the incoming legislative session.
Beck held her first caucus meeting with 27 members, nearly double than what she had before the Oct. 28 election but short of the 31 required to form a majority in the 61-seat legislature.
She says her priorities will be health care and cost-of-living issues.
Beck says people need affordability help right now and will press Premier Scott Moe’s Saskatchewan Party government to cut the gas tax and the provincial sales tax on children’s clothing and some grocery items.
Beck’s NDP is Saskatchewan’s largest Opposition in nearly two decades after sweeping Regina and winning all but one seat in Saskatoon.
The Saskatchewan Party won 34 seats, retaining its hold on all of the rural ridings and smaller cities.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Nov. 8, 2024.
HALIFAX – Nova Scotia‘s growing population was the subject of debate on Day 12 of the provincial election campaign, with Liberal Leader Zach Churchill arguing immigration levels must be reduced until the province can provide enough housing and health-care services.
Churchill said Thursday a plan by the incumbent Progressive Conservatives to double the province’s population to two million people by the year 2060 is unrealistic and unsustainable.
“That’s a big leap and it’s making life harder for people who live here, (including ) young people looking for a place to live and seniors looking to downsize,” he told a news conference at his campaign headquarters in Halifax.
Anticipating that his call for less immigration might provoke protests from the immigrant community, Churchill was careful to note that he is among the third generation of a family that moved to Nova Scotia from Lebanon.
“I know the value of immigration, the importance of it to our province. We have been built on the backs of an immigrant population. But we just need to do it in a responsible way.”
The Liberal leader said Tim Houston’s Tories, who are seeking a second term in office, have made a mistake by exceeding immigration targets set by the province’s Department of Labour and Immigration. Churchill said a Liberal government would abide by the department’s targets.
In the most recent fiscal year, the government welcomed almost 12,000 immigrants through its nominee program, exceeding the department’s limit by more than 4,000, he said. The numbers aren’t huge, but the increase won’t help ease the province’s shortages in housing and doctors, and the increased strain on its infrastructure, including roads, schools and cellphone networks, Churchill said.
“(The Immigration Department) has done the hard work on this,” he said. “They know where the labour gaps are, and they know what growth is sustainable.”
In response, Houston said his commitment to double the population was a “stretch goal.” And he said the province had long struggled with a declining population before that trend was recently reversed.
“The only immigration that can come into this province at this time is if they are a skilled trade worker or a health-care worker,” Houston said. “The population has grown by two per cent a year, actually quite similar growth to what we experienced under the Liberal government before us.”
Still, Houston said he’s heard Nova Scotians’ concerns about population growth, and he then pivoted to criticize Prime Minister Justin Trudeau for trying to send 6,000 asylum seekers to Nova Scotia, an assertion the federal government has denied.
Churchill said Houston’s claim about asylum seekers was shameful.
“It’s smoke and mirrors,” the Liberal leader said. “He is overshooting his own department’s numbers for sustainable population growth and yet he is trying to blame this on asylum seekers … who aren’t even here.”
In September, federal Immigration Minister Marc Miller said there is no plan to send any asylum seekers to the province without compensation or the consent of the premier. He said the 6,000 number was an “aspirational” figure based on models that reflect each province’s population.
In Halifax, NDP Leader Claudia Chender said it’s clear Nova Scotia needs more doctors, nurses and skilled trades people.
“Immigration has been and always will be a part of the Nova Scotia story, but we need to build as we grow,” Chender said. “This is why we have been pushing the Houston government to build more affordable housing.”
Chender was in a Halifax cafe on Thursday when she promised her party would remove the province’s portion of the harmonized sales tax from all grocery, cellphone and internet bills if elected to govern on Nov. 26. The tax would also be removed from the sale and installation of heat pumps.
“Our focus is on helping people to afford their lives,” Chender told reporters. “We know there are certain things that you can’t live without: food, internet and a phone …. So we know this will have the single biggest impact.”
The party estimates the measure would save the average Nova Scotia family about $1,300 a year.
“That’s a lot more than a one or two per cent HST cut,” Chender said, referring to the Progressive Conservative pledge to reduce the tax by one percentage point and the Liberal promise to trim it by two percentage points.
Elsewhere on the campaign trail, Houston announced that a Progressive Conservative government would make parking free at all Nova Scotia hospitals and health-care centres. The promise was also made by the Liberals in their election platform released Monday.
“Free parking may not seem like a big deal to some, but … the parking, especially for people working at the facilities, can add up to hundreds of dollars,” the premier told a news conference at his campaign headquarters in Halifax.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Nov. 7, 2024.
