Media Arts and Design Festival 2025

The Media Arts and Design Festival 2025 (บึงเบ๊ง) opened at Chiang Mai University Art Center on 10th October. An impressive multimedia exhibition, the MADs degree show runs until today.

The exhibition includes Eternal Wounds (เงา-อำนาจ-บาดแผล), an installation by Jiraphon Jomthonglang commenting on state violence. The installation features a drawing on a rock inspired by the famous Neal Ulevich photograph of the 1976 Thammasat University massacre. The description on the gallery label refers to the work’s English-language title: “Soldiers still stand above the people, their power inherited as a wound without end.”

Buariyate Eamkamol’s short film A Fire 9 Kilometers Away (previously shown at Wildtype 2025) is also part of the exhibition. The film is a blend of documentary and fiction, and features a poem dedicated to Samaphan Srithep, one of the youngest victims of the crackdown on protesters in Bangkok in 2010. Projected as a diptych, the film makes ironic juxtapositions, showing military snipers on 10th April 2010 alongside footage of revellers firing water pistols during the April Songkran festival.

(Buriyate’s short film Red Is the Orangest Color, which will be released later this year, documents a commemoration of the fifteenth anniversary of the events of 2010. The film’s title refers to many previous red-shirt Pheu Thai supporters having shifted their allegiances to the progressive ‘orange movement’ represented by the People’s Party. This trend is hardly surprising, as Pheu Thai abandoned the pro-democracy bloc after the last election, and broke their repeated commitments not to join forces with United Thai Nation and Palang Pracharath.)

When My Father Was a Communist

Vichart Somkaew’s documentary When My Father Was a Communist will be shown at the Tenessarim monument at Yang Nam Klat Nuea in Phetchaburi on 29th November. The screening is part of an event marking the eighty-third anniversary of the Communist Party of Thailand.

For When My Father Was a Communist, Vichart interviewed his father, Sawang, and other former members of the CPT. The film is a valuable social history, as the veterans explain their decisions to join the party, and describe their experiences in the forests of Phatthalung.

When My Father Was a Communist is also a record of the state’s violent suppression of communist insurgents, hundreds (potentially thousands) of whom were burned in oil drums in 1972. These so-called ‘red barrel’ deaths were most prevalent in Phatthalung, and have never been officially investigated. (The names of the victims are listed before the film’s end credits.) There have been other documentaries about the red barrels, but When My Father Was a Communist stands out for Vichart’s close connections to the subject: this is a deeply personal project, as he was born in Phatthalung, and he is documenting the memories of his elderly father.

The film notes that the repressive atmosphere of the 1970s has not disappeared. One speaker says that the political system has barely changed since the military dictatorship after the 1976 coup. Another makes a direct comparison between the suppression of political opponents then and now: “dissolving political parties, slapping people with Article 112 charges... It’s like arresting them and throwing them in red barrels, but they do it in a different way now.”

When My Father Was a Communist was first shown at the Us coffee shop in Phatthalung on 10th July. It was screened at Phimailongweek (พิมายฬองวีค) in Korat, and at the Chard Festival (ฉาด เฟสติวัล) in Phatthalung. It had four screenings on 10th August — at the Chinese Martyrs Memorial Museum in Chiang Rai, Suan Anya in Chiang Mai, Sakon Nakhon Rajabhat University, and Samakichumnum in Nakhon Phanom — as part of the nationwide ความฝันประชาชน (‘people’s dream’) arts event. Other screenings have included: Vongchavalitkul University in Korat on 23rd July, A.E.Y. Space in Songkla on 26th July, Lorem Ipsum in Hat Yai on 27th July, Phattalung’s red barrel memorial building on 7th August, Hope Space in Bangkok on 16th August, Walailak University in Nakhon Si Thammarat on 27th August, and Bookhemian in Phuket on 19th September.

Mob 2020–2021

Supong Jitmuang’s documentary Mob 2020–2021 will be shown at Kinjai Contemporary in Bangkok on 12th October, as part of the Once Upon a Time 63 (กาลครั้งหนึ่งของฉันในปี 63) exhibition. (The film received its first public screening at the same venue in 2022.) The exhibition, organised by the Museum of Popular History, runs from 12th to 25th October, and the film will be screened continuously throughout the exhibition.

Mob 2020–2021 covers the first twelve months of the recent anti-government protest movement. Supong and his camera were at Thammasat University on 19th September 2020, for the overnight rally that later occupied Sanam Luang. On 14th October 2020, he filmed the march to Government House, after which a state of emergency was declared. On 17th November 2020, he was on the front line when protesters used inflatable ducks to protect themselves from water cannon fired by riot police. (Sorayos Prapapan’s short film Yellow Duck Against Dictatorship documents the same event.)

The protests were at their most intense in the summer of 2021, and Mob 2020–2021 shows the rally at Democracy Monument on 18th July 2021 marking the first anniversary of the campaign. That August, there were almost daily confrontations between riot police and protesters, but rather than filming each event, Supong summarises them in a general written caption noting the “multiple continuous clashes that lasted many weeks”.

Mob 2020–2021 was the first feature-length documentary covering the student protest movement. It’s an invaluable record of a profound social and political change in Thailand. Supong’s film also includes a written timeline of the protests, and its matter-of-fact neutrality is maintained throughout, except for a single reference to the “parasitic” government.

The film was first shown online, in the Short Film Marathon (หนังสั้นมาราธอน), as part of the 25th Thai Short Film and Video Festival (เทศกาลภาพยนตร์สั้น ครั้งที่ 25). It has also been screened at the Hom Theatre in Uttaradit, at the 2nd Anniversary of We Volunteer (งานครบรอบ 2 ปีกลุ่ม We Volunteer) exhibition, and at the third Moving Images Screening Night (คืนฉายภาพเคลื่อนไหว).

49 ปี 6 ตุลา(‘49 years since 6th Oct.’)

The forty-ninth anniversary of the 6th October 1976 massacre was commemorated at Thammasat University today. Two short plays were staged at the Sri Burapha Auditorium, and the Museum of Popular History held an exhibition, ความหวังยังพริ้งพราย เก่าตายมีใหม่เสริม (‘hope still shines brightly: the old dies, and is replaced by the new’), which compared student activism in the 1970s to the student protest movement that began in 2020. The exhibition itself didn’t include the notorious Dao Siam (ดาวสยาม) newspaper front page that sparked the massacre, though a small reproduction of it was part of a display outside the entrance.

In 6 ตุลา x ราโชมอน (‘6 Oct. x Rashomon’), by Natthapat Mardech, a young man returns to Thammasat to learn the truth about the massacre, though everyone he speaks to gives a different account of what happened, in the same way that Rashomon (羅生門) also recounts a violent event from multiple perspectives. The play’s props include a folding chair and a reproduction of the Dao Siam front page, both of which are closely associated with the massacre.

It will be performed again on 15th and 16th November, at TK Park in Bangkok’s CentralWorld mall, as part of the Bangkok Theatre Festival 2025 (เทศกาลละครกรุงเทพ 2025). The festival runs from 8th to 23rd November.

The title of the other play, Ultramarine: Threat (by ShiVa Vitthaya), hints at a symbolic meaning of the colour blue, and the production featured forty-five extras playing the massacre victims. It also included a projected backdrop of images from the 1976 massacre. (Its next performance will be in Chiang Mai.) Both productions were photographed by the artist known as Khai Maew.

The first event marking the forty-ninth anniversary took place last month. ห้วงแห่งความเงียบงัน: ภาวะลืมไม่ได้จำไม่ลง หลัง 6 ตุลา 2519, a Thai translation of Thongchai Winichakul’s book Moments of Silence, featuring illustrations by Tawan Wattuya, has been published to coincide with the aniversary. A similar commemoration was held on the forty-eighth anniversary last year.

6th October 1976

On 6th October 1976, forty-six people, most of whom were students, were killed in a military massacre at Thammasat University in Bangkok. The bodies of the victims were desecrated by baying mobs, and the incident remains one of the most shocking moments in Thailand’s modern history.

The Thammasat students had been protesting against the return from exile of Thanom Kittikachorn, the coup leader who had fled into exile in 1973. The circumstances surrounding Thanom’s arrival back in Thailand in September 1976 remain unclear: was his return orchestrated by the military to provoke a demonstration and justify another coup? (Thanom had previously returned in December 1974, against the wishes of the prime minister. On that occasion, 10,000 Thammasat students protested against him, and he left the country again two days later.)

On 25th September 1976, two anti-Thanom activists (Choomporn Thummai and Vichai Kasripongsa) were hanged by the police, and on 4th October 1976 a group of Thammasat students staged a reenactment of the hanging. One of the students who posed as a victim, Apinan Buahapakdee, coincidentally bore a passing resemblance to Crown Prince Vajiralongkorn (who is now King Rama X).

On its front page on 6th October 1976, the nationalist Dao Siam (ดาวสยาม) newspaper printed Apinan’s photograph and accused the students of hanging the Prince in effigy. Again, the circumstances are unclear, and there are rumours that the photo was retouched to accentuate the royal resemblance.

Militia groups (the Village Scouts, Nawaphon, and Red Gaurs) joined the police and army in storming the Thammasat campus, and a coup took place later that day. I have collected various items related to 6th October, including cassettes, records, CDs, DVDs, videotapes, books, magazines, and newspapers.

14th October 1973

The events of 14th October 1973 led to the collapse of a dictatorship, followed by three years of democratic government in Thailand. The roots of the revolution can be traced back six months earlier, when a helicopter crashed in the Thung Yai wildlife sanctuary. The crash caused a national scandal, as the helicopter was part of an illegal poaching expedition organised by senior military figures.

Students from Ramkhanhaeng University published a dossier about the controversy, บันทึกลับจากทุ่งใหญ่ (‘secret notes on Thung Yai’). They were suspended from their courses, triggering protests at Democracy Monument calling for their reinstatement. Student activism increased, developing into a wider campaign against the military government led by Thanom Kittikachorn.

By 11th October 1973, around 50,000 protesters demonstrated at Thammasat University. Two days later, they marched to Democracy Monument, and the number of demonstrators swelled to 500,000. On 14th October 1973, the military opened fire on the students — killing seventy-seven people — and there were rumours that Thanom’s son Narong shot protesters from a military helicopter.

To appease the protesters, the government agreed to begin drafting a new constitution, and protest leader Seksan Prasertkul sought assurances from King Rama IX that this promise would be kept. Just as in May 1992, Bhumibol’s actions resolved the conflict: Thanom, Narong, and Praphas Charusathien (known as the three tyrants) fled in to exile, and a civilian prime minister was appointed. (Three years later, Thanom returned, and a violent coup took place on 6th October 1976.)

I have collected various items related to 14th October, including cassettes, records, CDs, videotapes, VCDs, books, magazines, and newspapers. (The event is known in Thai as วันมหาวิปโยค, or ‘the day of great sorrow’.)

‘Black May’ 1992

Army commander Suchinda Kraprayoon led a coup in 1991, and his junta installed Anand Panyarachun as a civilian prime minister. But after an election in 1992, Suchinda replaced Anand as PM, leading to anti-military demonstrations in Bangkok.

Chamlong Srimuang led a crowd of more than 200,000 protesters at Sanam Luang on 17th May 1992. The following morning, the army fired live rounds into the crowd, and Chamlong was arrested. The protest spread to Democracy Monument on Ratchadamnoen Avenue, and the nearby Royal Hotel became a field hospital for the injured.

After two more days of clashes — and fifty-two deaths — King Rama IX held a televised meeting with Chamlong and Suchinda, after which Suchinda resigned as prime minister. This was Bhumibol’s most direct public intervention in politics, and footage of the two men kneeling in front of him created the impression that royal authority superseded political leadership.

I have collected various items related to the events of ‘Black May’, including cassettes, videotapes, books, magazines, and newspapers published during the protest. (Black May is known in Thai as พฤษภาทมิฬ, or ‘savage May’.)

“The proceedings were instituted unlawfully...”

A terrorism charge against Kneecap member Mo Chara has been dropped due to a legal technicality. Paul Goldspring, chief magistrate for England and Wales, dismissed the case on 26th September, noting that his written ruling “is not about the defendant’s innocence or guilt rather only whether this court has jurisdiction to hear the case.” He concluded that the court had no such jurisdiction, as the charge had been filed one day after the six-month statute of limitations had expired: “As such, the proceedings were instituted unlawfully and are null.”

The charge related to a Kneecap concert in London on 21st November last year, at the O2 Forum Kentish Town during the band’s final show on their Fine Art Tour, when Chara appeared on stage draped in the Hezbollah flag saying: “Up Hamas! Up Hezbollah!” Hezbollah is classified as a terrorist group under UK law, and the Metropolitan Police charged Chara with displaying the flag “in such a way or in such circumstances as to arouse reasonable suspicion that he is a supporter of a proscribed organisation”.

Police also investigated Kneecap’s performance at this year’s Glastonbury Festival, after another band member, Móglaí Bap, called for fans to “start a riot” outside court when Chara’s trial began. After realising that his comments could be construed as an incitement to violence, Bap explained that he wasn’t literally asking people to riot, and Avon and Somerset Police dropped their investigation into the incident.

Lucky Loser:How Donald Trump Squandered His Father’s Fortune and Created the Illusion of Success

US President Donald Trump has filed a defamation lawsuit against the publisher and authors of Lucky Loser: How Donald Trump Squandered His Father’s Fortune and Created the Illusion of Success. The book, by New York Times reporters Russ Buettner and Susanne Craig, was published last year. Buettner and Craig won the Pulitzer Prize for their investigations into Trump’s finances, and the book is an expanded account of their findings.

Trump’s lawsuit, filed on 15th September at the US District Court in Florida, describes Lucky Loser as “filled with repugnant distortions and fabrications about President Trump”. He is seeking an extraordinary $15 billion in damages, though the case will almost certainly be dismissed, as the book is a work of meticulous investigative journalism. (The lawsuit specifies multiple passages that contain allegedly defamatory statements, on pp. 5–8, 69, 148, 159, 166, 184, 219, 270, 290, 300–301, 313, 352–354, 360, 366, 398, 444–445, and 448–449.)

(The lawsuit also cites three New York Times articles — one of which is an extract from the book — as defamatory. The articles were published online and in print, in the weeks leading up to last year’s US election, though the lawsuit refers only to the online versions.)

Today, a judge dismissed the lawsuit, though he gave Trump’s legal team four weeks to submit a revised version. In a brief written order, judge Steven D. Merryday described the lawsuit as “decidedly improper and impermissible.” He argued that its focus on recounting Trump’s electoral success and business career was immaterial to the legal case, noting that it contained “abundant, florid, and enervating detail.” He stipulated that any resubmitted version must be under forty pages long, as opposed to the rambling eighty-five-page original suit.

This is only the second time that Trump has personally taken legal action against a publisher during his presidency. The first occasion was earlier this year, when he sued The Wall Street Journal, claiming that a letter he wrote to Jeffrey Epstein didn’t exist. Since the WSJ lawsuit was filed, the letter has been published, and Trump continues to deny that he wrote it, even though it’s clearly signed by him.

Trump has sued numerous other media figures and news organisations over the years, including Bill Maher and CNN. He sued Bob Woodward for copyright infringement, though that case was dismissed. His lawsuit against E. Jean Carroll was also dismissed. His unsuccessful lawsuit against Timothy L. O’Brien’s book TrumpNation sought $5 billion in damages.

Trump has never won a libel case in court, though he has received settlements in two cases. ABC settled after he sued them last year. CBS also agreed to an out-of-court settlement earlier this year after he sued them in 2024.

Occasionally, Trump has filed defamation suits indirectly via his organisations or relatives. His brother sued their niece, Mary Trump, in 2020, though the case was dismissed. A suit filed against the NYT by his presidential campaign also failed. His wife won undisclosed damages from The Daily Telegraph in 2019, and she was awarded $3 million in damages from the Daily Mail in 2017.

Lucky Loser is the twenty-second Trump tome on the Dateline Bangkok bookshelf. The others are: TrumpNation, War, The Divider, Betrayal, Confidence Man, Fire and Fury, Too Much and Never Enough, Fear, Rage, Peril, I Alone Can Fix It, A Very Stable Genius, Inside Trump’s White House, The United States of Trump, Trump’s Enemies, The Trump White House, The Room Where It Happened, Team of Five, American Carnage, The Cost, and the audiobook The Trump Tapes.

ความฝันของชายผู้กลายเป็นดาวฤกษ์ (‘the dream of a man who became a star’)

Today is the nineteenth anniversary of the 2006 coup, and Napat Treepalawisetkun’s new fantasy novel ความฝันของชายผู้กลายเป็นดาวฤกษ์ (‘the dream of a man who became a star’) explores the impact of that event on Thai society. In the book, ‘impact’ is taken literally, as a giant meteorite strikes the country in September 2006. The celestial object is a metaphor for the disruptive effects of the coup, though the book is also one of several recent novels that refer to the 1976 massacre at Thammast University.

The book will be released next month, a day before the anniversary of the Thammasat incident. Napat previously directed the film We Will Forget It Again (แล้วเราจะลืมมันอีกครั้ง), which addressed another tragic political milestone: the killing of protesters at Ratchaprasong in 2010. In Napat’s short drama, a victim of the crackdown returns as a ghost, a trickle of blood running down her face, to be reunited with her surviving daughters.

The Ordinary

Prapassorn Konmuang’s The Ordinary (คนธรรมดา) will be restaged on 19th September at Thammasat University. The play, a monologue about resistance to coups and authoritarianism, is directed by Thunratram Cheepnurat. The performance will take place at the Faculty of Liberal Arts, with advance tickets priced at ฿112. (Regular tickets cost ฿247.50, and 2475 is the Buddhist Era equivalent of 1932, the year that absolute monarchy was abolished.)

19th September

19th September is a significant date, being the fifth anniversary of a protest at Thammasat in 2020, one of the largest student-led demonstrations since the 2014 coup. The play’s revival is one of a series of events organised by the United Front of Thammasat and Demonstration, and the Democracy Restoration Group, collectively titled ทบทวน 5 ปี 19 กันยา 2563 (‘looking back 5 years since 19th September 2020’).

The date also marks another anniversary, as the coup against Thaksin Shinawatra took place on 19th September 2006. That date appears in the titles of two books published by Same Sky: รัฐประหาร 19 กันยา (‘19th Sept. coup’) and 19–19.

112

The ticket price for The Ordinary is also symbolic: ฿112 refers to the lèse-majesté law, which is article 112 of the Thai criminal code. Similarly, the catalogue for Wittawat Tongkeaw’s exhibition Re/Place cost ฿112, and two poetry books — เหมือนบอดใบ้ไพร่ฟ้ามาสุดทาง (‘we subjects, as if mute and blind, have found ourselves at the end of the line’) and ราษฎรที่รักทั้งหลาย (‘dear citizens’) — were also sold at that price.

There have been other subtle cultural references to 112 in recent years. Another play, Wilderness (รักดงดิบ), included a recipe stating that food should “dry in the sun for 112 hours”. Elevenfinger’s single Land of Compromise was released at 1:12pm. Vichart Somkaew’s documentary 112 News from Heaven features 112 headlines from a 112-day period, and 112 photographic portraits. The Evidences of Resistance [sic] (วัตถุพยานแห่งการต่อต้าน) exhibition was held in room 112 at Thammasat’s Museum of Anthropology.

“Sending him to hospital was not legal...”

The Supreme Court has sentenced Thaksin Shinawatra to one year in prison, with immediate effect, after ruling that his previous transfer to a police hospital was unlawful. The court ordered Thaksin to be sent to Bangkok Remand Prison yesterday morning, and he was transferred from there to the high-security Klongprem Central Prison.

Thaksin returned to Thailand from self-exile in 2023, and was taken directly from the airport to be sentenced in his outstanding corruption trial. He received an eight-year sentence in that case, though on his first night in jail he was transferred to hospital for unspecified medical reasons.

His eight-year sentence was commuted to one year following a royal pardon, and he was released on parole early last year. He had spent six months in hospital, and had not served any of his sentence behind bars. Announcing the one-year sentence yesterday, the judge said: “Sending him to hospital was not legal... staying in hospital cannot count as a prison term”.

After being paroled, Thaksin was photographed (rather unconvincingly) in a neck brace and sling, though he was accused of conspiring with prison staff to gain admittance to hospital under false pretenses. Those suspicions were confirmed yesterday, when the Supreme Court ruled that his hospital stay had indeed been a ruse to avoid jail time. The investigation was nicknamed the ‘14th floor case’, as Thaksin stayed in a suite on the 14th floor of the Police General Hospital.

On 5th September, just four days before yesterday’s court ruling, Thaksin flew out of the country unexpectedly. After being briefly detained at the airport while immigration police confirmed that he wasn’t subject to a travel ban, he took a private jet to Dubai. This led to speculation that he had fled the country in anticipation of a guilty verdict (as he had in 2008), though he flew back to Thailand via Singapore two days ago.

เก็บตกวงเสวนา 49 ปี 6 ตุลา: เมื่อเรื่องราว 6 ตุลาไม่ได้ถูกจำกัดไว้เพียงที่ธรรมศาสตร์ (‘a briefing on the 49th anniversary of 6th Oct.’)

เก็บตกวงเสวนา 49 ปี 6 ตุลา: เมื่อเรื่องราว 6 ตุลาไม่ได้ถูกจำกัดไว้เพียงที่ธรรมศาสตร์ (‘a briefing on the 49th anniversary of 6th Oct.: the 6th Oct. event is not limited to Thammasat University’), held today at Thammasat University’s Faculty of Political Science, featured a Q&A with Patporn Phoothong, co-director of the short film The Two Brothers (สองพี่น้อง). The event was a precursor to the upcoming forty-ninth anniversary of the massacre that took place at Thammasat on 6th October 1976.

The Two Brothers was screened as part of today’s event. Directed by Patporn and Teerawat Rujenatham, the documentary features interviews with relatives of two young men who were hanged by police for campaigning against the return of former dictator Thanom Kittikachorn from exile. When student actors at Thammasat staged a reenactment of the hanging, the right-wing Dao Siam (ดาวสยาม) newspaper falsely accused them of hanging an effigy of the Crown Prince (now Rama X), and this inflammatory headline sparked the massacre.

The brutal events of that notorious day are encapsulated in a much-reproduced photograph by Neal Ulevich, which shows a vigilante preparing to beat a hanged corpse with a folding chair. In reference to that image, today’s event included a folding chair on display.

The Two Brothers was previously shown at Hope Space in Bangkok last year, at Thammasat in 2020 and 2017, and at the Thai Film Archive in Salaya in 2017. Thai Cinema Uncensored discusses this and other Thai films that refer to the 1976 massacre.

Prime Minister Anutin Charnvirakul

Anutin Charnvirakul, leader of Bhumjaithai, became Thai Prime Minister today, though his term in office may be short-lived. After the Constitutional Court dismissed Paetongtarn Shinawatra last week, Anutin was the clear front-runner to succeed her, and he has now been elected by a majority of MPs, though he will lead a minority caretaker government.

Bhumjaithai was the first party to join Pheu Thai’s coalition in 2023, after Pheu Thai abandoned the election winners, Move Forward. Anutin became interior minister in the coalition government, though earlier this year there were rumours that he would lose that powerful position in a cabinet reshuffle. When Paetongtarn’s obsequious phone call with former Cambodian PM Hun Sen was leaked, Anutin used the scandal as a pretext to withdraw Bhumjaithai from the coalition.

To win today’s parliamentary vote, Anutin relied on the support of the opposition People’s Party, which was founded after Move Forward was dissolved by the Constitutional Court. The People’s Party and Bhumjaithai signed a joint agreement on 3rd September, with the People’s Party endorsing Anutin as PM (though not joining a Bhumjaithai coalition) on the condition that he pledged to call an election within four months.

This confidence-and-supply arrangement is extremely unconventional, as the progressive People’s Party and the conservative Bhumjaithai are ideological opposites. But it’s in the People’s Party’s interests to hold an election as soon as possible, as Pheu Thai, their main rival, have lost public confidence. Perhaps, as the proverb says, my enemy’s enemy is my friend — the People’s Party and Bhumjaithai are united only in their mutual distrust of Pheu Thai — though the deal with Anutin could also cost the People’s Party some support at the next election.

In a last-minute and rather desperate overture yesterday, Pheu Thai offered to dissolve parliament immediately — not within the four months agreed by Anutin — provided that the People’s Party endorsed Pheu Thai’s candidate Chaikasem Nitisiri as PM. The People’s Party rejected this proposal and instead voted for Anutin, but only after an intense internal debate.

With only two nominated candidates, Anutin and Chaikasem, the People’s Party were caught between a rock and a hard place: vote for the party that scuppered their chances of forming a government in 2023 (Pheu Thai), or a party that opposes their entire manifesto (Bhumjaithai). In the end, given the betrayal that took place after the last election, it seems that the People’s Party leadership couldn’t bring themselves to endorse a Pheu Thai candidate. (If they had abstained, and neither candidate had gained a majority, this would have led to a second round of voting, with different candidates, potentially including Prayut Chan-o-cha.)

Phumtham Wechayachai, who had served as acting prime minister since Paetongtarn’s suspension in July, submitted a draft royal decree seeking the dissolution of parliament on 2nd September, to be signed by the King. But the submission was swiftly rejected by the Privy Council, citing legal advice that an acting PM is not authorised to dissolve parliament.