Unlock the Editor’s Digest for free
Roula Khalaf, Editor of the FT, selects her favourite stories in this weekly newsletter.
Thailand’s Prime Minister Anutin Charnvirakul has dissolved parliament and called for an early election, deepening political uncertainty in the country amid a rolling border conflict with Cambodia.
“I would like to return power to the people,” Anutin wrote in a post on Facebook late on Thursday.
The Thai constitutional monarch, King Maha Vajiralongkorn, later approved Anutin’s proposal to dissolve parliament.
Thailand will have to hold a general election within 45 to 60 days, as stipulated by its constitution.
Anutin, a staunch backer of the country’s conservative military and royalist establishment, has been in power for just three months at the helm of a minority government.
He had promised to hold early elections to secure the backing of the opposition People’s party, the largest political bloc in parliament, to become prime minister.
Thailand has been grappling with a slowing economy, higher US tariffs and a border conflict with Cambodia that flared up again this week. Nine Thai soldiers have died in the most recent clashes, while Cambodia has said at least 10 civilians have been killed.
Thailand’s last election, in 2023, was won by the People’s party predecessor, known as Move Forward. But it was blocked from power, and its leader was banned from politics for a decade, over the party’s call to reform the country’s harsh royal defamation law.
The country has had three prime ministers since then.
Following the election, a coalition of conservative parties formed a partnership with billionaire former leader Thaksin Shinawatra’s populist Pheu Thai party to elect his ally Srettha Thavisin as the prime minister, leaving Move Forward in opposition.
Srettha and his successor, Thaksin’s daughter Paetongtarn Shinawatra, each served about a year in power before being ousted by the constitutional court for ethics breaches.
Paetongtarn was removed from office over a leaked phone call with Cambodia’s influential leader Hun Sen in which she criticised the Thai military in an effort to calm the border tensions, paving the way for Anutin to take over the premiership.
