Dec. 12 (UPI) — Thai Prime Minister Anutin Charnvirakul dissolved parliament on Friday, triggering fresh elections just three months after his minority government replaced a government headed by Paetongtarn Shinawatra.
In King Maha Vajiralongkorn’s decree approving the move, Anutin blamed recent deadly border clashes with Thailand’s northern neighbor Cambodia among other issues his administration has struggled to overcome.
The Thai Pride Party leader was elected by lawmakers in September with the backing of the People’s Party, which lent its support on condition that he dissolve the House of Representatives within four months.
However, facing a no-confidence vote after the People’s Party withdrew its backing amid a dispute over constitutional reform, Anutin brought the date forward.
“The appropriate solution is to dissolve parliament, which is a way to return political power to the people,” he said.
Anutin will stay on as caretaker prime minister, albeit with severely limited powers, until the elections, which by law must be held within 60 days.
His administration has been under fire over cross-border fighting with Cambodian forces that has killed at least 20 people and forced hundreds of thousands to flee and for failures in dealing with severe flooding in the south of the country in November in which more than 170 died.
“The government had executed every means in public administration to quickly resolve the urgent issues overwhelming the country… but running the country requires stability,” Anutin wrote in Friday’s decree.
“As a minority government, together with troubling domestic political circumstances, it has been unable to carry out public administration continuously, effectively and with stability.”
Shinawatra, Anutin’s predecessor, was removed from office in August after Thailand’s Constitutional Court found she had broken ethics rules in a phone call to a former Cambodian Prime Minister Hun Sen.
The fall of the government, the third in two years, threatens to exacerbate a deepening political, security and economic crisis, with the economy slowing sharply in the third quarter, posting annualized GDP growth of just 1.2%.
Anutin insisted the dissolution of parliament would have no impact on the country’s military operations on the border with Cambodia after fighting re-erupted Monday, threatening to unravel an already fragile cease-fire brokered by U.S. President Donald Trump in July.
Trump was scheduled to hold phone calls with Anutin and Cambodian Prime Minister Hun Manet on Friday evening to try to get the truce back on track.
Analysts warned that internal Thai politics could complicate that effort with the increasingly tough position being signaled by Anutin’s party on the territorial dispute.
“We see a risk of the conflict persisting into 2026 if the Thai government [of Anutin] judges that adopting a harder line could bolster its political standing ahead of the likely early-2026 elections,” Oxford Economics leader economist Alexandra Hermann told CNBC.
