General Prawit Wongsuwon, one of the three Thai generals that led the 2014 military coup that ousted the elected Yingluck Shinawatra government, has been given his latest set of marching orders.
The 80 year old political warhorse, and leader of the Phalang Pracharath Party, has been informed he will not be included in the new coalition, along with the MPs that have also supported him and his party.
Instead, according to sources, the Democrats, who have been languishing on the opposition benches, have been welcomed into the warm embrace of the government coalition.
But they are not alone.
A breakaway group of MPs from Phalang Pracharath, led by decisive 60 year old Thammanat Prompow. Thammanat is not only the caretaker Minister of Agriculture, he was infamously deported from Australia after spending four years of a six year sentence for heroin trafficking in the 90s in a Sydney prison.
With the Democrats 21 MPs and a chunk of the MPs, formerly with Phalang Pracharath, the Pheu Thai-led coalition will have adequate numbers to govern.
Now the old general, who was recently videoed assaulting a Thai PBS journalist, will sit in the opposition benches along with the 151 ‘progressive’ People’s Party MPs.
The upset in the coalition has not yet been confirmed by a parliamentary official or the Pheu Thai party.
