In Thailand, ombudsman to seek constitutional court ruling over prime ministerial candidate's blocked renomination

The Office of the Ombudsman will ask the Constitutional Court to rule whether the parliamentary decision to block the renomination of prime ministerial candidate Pita Limjaroenrat for the post last week violated the constitution, its secretary-general Keirov Kritteeranon announced on Monday (Jul 24).  The office will also request the court for a measure to delay the selection of the prime minister [...] until the ruling has been given, Mr Keirov said. On Jul 19, the House of Representatives and the Senate voted in a joint sitting to block 42-year-old Pita – leader of election-winning Move Forward Party – from being nominated for prime minister for the second time. This after he failed to gain enough approval in his initial bid for the premiership the week before. A total of 395 parliamentarians agreed that Mr Pita’s initial defeat was equivalent to a rejected motion and that the regulations for parliamentary sitting prohibit such a motion from being resubmitted for consideration in the same parliamentary session. [...] According to Mr Keirov, the Ombudsman viewed that the nomination of prime ministerial candidates is specifically stipulated in the constitution and therefore different from the submission of motions in the parliamentary sitting. The Move Forward Party won a surprise victory in the country’s general election on May 14 and formed a coalition with seven other parties.  [...] The current constitution stipulates that a prospective prime minister must have the approval from more than half of the combined assembly, which includes 249 senators from the Upper House. Mr Pita only managed to secure 324 votes in the initial choosing of the prime minister, while 182 people voted against him and 199 others abstained. 
Read the full article here: CNA