Thailand's Move Forward has 'momentum on our side', Pita says as he seeks allies for PM bid

Pita Limjaroenrat, leader of Thailand's poll-winning Move Forward Party, on Thursday sought to dynamise his bid for government by announcing two new coalition members, as his party's stance on monarchy reform drew outcry from an establishment desperate to block his march to office.

The youth-focused Move Forward won a shock victory in Sunday's polls, scooping up 152 seats which - if ratified in coming weeks - will make it the largest party in the elected House of Representatives.

The vote for a relatively new progressive party delivered a withering verdict on nine years of military-aligned rule by ex-army chief Prayuth Chan-ocha and a rebuke to old powers, from local patronage networks to the kingdom's apex institution - the monarchy.

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Move Forward has been joined by pre-poll favourite Pheu Thai and six other smaller pro-democracy parties to carry 313 seats of the 500 available in Sunday's polls.

The 42-year-old Pita says he has the popular mandate and his party is determined to seize the moment to form a government before its bruised conservative rivals have time to regroup.

"I have a consensus to form a coalition right now," Pita told reporters, flanked by the seven other coalition members, including two new ones carrying three seats into his grouping.

But it is still 63 short of forming a majority of 376 across the Thai parliament's two chambers. That means it may take months to form a government, especially if the conservative bloc tries to patch together its own coalition.

"I want to assure the public that my coalition is firmly taking place, there's momentum, there's progress," Pita added. "We also have a very clear road map from today until the day I become prime minister."

Move Forward plans another "caravan" of supporters just outside Bangkok on Thursday night, in what analysts say is a reminder to the establishment over its ability to pull a crowd in a country where street protests have followed attempts to block pro-democracy governments.

But in a straitjacketed democracy, an appointed Senate of 250 members provides a stumbling block.

They can choose to vote against Pita as prime minister, throwing the formation of any Move Forward government into doubt, or back a conservative rival and risk the wrath of voters.

Several senators have already held vituperative media interviews refusing to support any party which puts the modern role of the monarchy on the table.

Move Forward wants to reform - not abolish - the 112 royal defamation law, under which scores of young pro-democracy protesters, some just teenagers, have been charged in the last two years.

Addressing the position of his coalition partners on the incendiary issue of "112", Pita said: "It's pretty clear on how we're going to approach the relationship between the people and monarchy in modern Thailand."

But reform of a law which criminalises open debate on the monarchy is a red line to several large potential partners.

Bhumjaithai, the third-place finisher with a projected 70 seats, has indicated it will not back any prime minister who supports amending or abolishing a law against insulting the monarchy.

"This is Bhumjaithai's core principle that cannot be changed or negotiated," the party said in a statement on Wednesday posted on Facebook. "Bhumjaithai cannot vote for a prime minister candidate of a party that has a proposal to amend or abolish Article 112."

Bhumjaithai, sponsor of the decriminalisation of cannabis, could instead play a key role in any conservative attempt to build a rival coalition.

But experts warn it would be provocative as it would have to do so from a minority position, which is likely to lead to political deadlock and a failure to pass votes through the house.

Move Forward's poll win has electrified Thai politics. The party has rocked the entire political and economic establishment with its strident calls to unplug the military from politics for good, curb the economic domination of monopolies, share power more evenly across the country and crucially reform the 112 law.

But other challenges remain in a country where interventionist courts and the Electoral Commission have dissolved and banned several pro-democracy parties and key leaders, including Move Forward's predecessor Future Forward.

Thailand has seen a coup every seven years on average since 1932, by a royalist army which refuses to leave power to civilian governments for long.

Prayuth led the last coup in 2014, wrote an appointed Senate into a new constitution and then hand-picked its members.

Additional reporting by Reuters

This article originally appeared on the South China Morning Post (SCMP).

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