Thailand's Constitutional Court has thrown out a petition to renew Pita Limjaroenrat's nomination bid to become the country's prime minister, local media reported Wednesday.
Three months after Thailand's parliamentary elections, this eliminates the hope of the Move Forward Party (MFP) of forming the next government and paves the way for a new vote in parliament, which could possibly happen this week.
The party had won the most votes in the election and formed an eight-party alliance, which had a clear majority of the 500 seats.
Yet under the Thai constitution, the prime minister is selected not just by the 500 elected lawmakers, but also by 250 conservative senators appointed by the military.
The 250 senators blocked the majority back in July.
Many conservatives strongly oppose a government involving Pita's MFP because he plans to amend Thailand's extremely strict law on defaming the monarchy.
After Pita had failed in a first vote in July, parliament denied him the right to stand again. The Constitutional Court then considered whether that step was legal. It rejected the MFP's petition Wednesday.
Even before the court's hearing Pita's chances of becoming prime minister were not very high, after his most important alliance partner, the Pheu Thai party, had broken away.
Pheu Thai then joined forces with Bhumjaithai Party and other conservatives and suggested the real estate developer Srettha Thavisin as the candidate for prime minister.
The MFP refused to continue to support the former alliance partner in forming the next government saying the actions of Pheu Thai skewed the results of the parliamentary election and contradicted the will of the people.
