Srettha can form his cabinet once his appointment is endorsed by King Maha Vajiralongkorn in a Royal Gazette.
Some three months after an election that represented one of the biggest challenges to Thailand’s royal establishment in years, the country finally has a new prime minister — and it’s someone who has the support of forces aligned with the palace.
Srettha Thavisin, a former property tycoon, became the first new leader to take charge of Thailand since 2014, when former army chief Prayuth Chan-Ocha staged a coup. Srettha, 61, won 482 votes in a joint sitting of the parliament’s two chambers with 747 lawmakers on Tuesday. He was backed by 152 members of the military-appointed Senate in addition to his bloc’s 314 elected lawmakers and some others.
