Thai Prime Minister Prayut Chan-ocha survived a no-confidence vote in parliament, his second this year amid criticisms of the government’s handling of the pandemic and infighting within his ruling party.
Prayut received 264 confidence votes from lawmakers on Saturday, while 208 voted against him, a televised broadcast of the parliament proceedings showed. Five other ministers including deputy premier and Health Minister Anutin Charnvirakul, who faced the no-confidence motions, also received backing from the majority of lawmakers.
Over the past four days, opposition lawmakers censured Prayut and his top ministers, saying they mismanaged the economic assistance programs, virus containment measures and the vaccination rollout. While Thailand’s daily infections have come down from a peak of over 20,000 cases, just about 13% of 70 million people are fully inoculated — well below a global average of about 28%, according to data compiled by Johns Hopkins University.
With your current subscription plan you can comment on stories. However, before writing your first comment, please create a display name in the Profile section of your subscriber account page.