Prime Minister Prayut Chan-o-cha is the Palang Pracharath Party (PPRP)’s “ideal” candidate to be next prime minister as he possesses the leadership skills to keep the country peaceful, according to party leader Uttama Savanayana.
The PPRP is confident it has picked the right prime man after Gen Prayut formally accepted the candidacy on Friday when the five-day registration period closed, Mr Uttama said.
In the current political climate, Gen Prayut is cut out for the job of moving forward a country in need of a peace-advocating and decisive leader, he said.
Mr Uttama revealed that after agreeing to be the PPRP’s sole prime ministerial candidate, Gen Prayut had given input on the party’s campaign policies.
The party has taken Gen Prayut’s advice on board, Mr Uttama said, adding the policies will be fine-tuned and expanded.
A revised version of the policies based on that input will be released to the public in due course.
Mr Uttama said he paid no attention to the Future Forward Party (FFP)’s demand for Gen Prayut to resign as prime minister after he agreed to the prime ministerial nomination.
The FFP is concerned Gen Prayut will try to prolong his grip on power and also about a conflict of interest.
He said Gen Prayut has played by the rules by following the proper nomination procedure under the constitution.
Gen Prayut answers to the people and he has explicitly expressed his intention to continue working to manage the country’s affairs under a democratic system, according to Mr Uttama.
Mr Uttama, accompanied by party executives including former commerce minister Sontirat Sontijirawong, yesterday hit the campaign trail in Muang district of Samut Sakhon where he opened the party’s election coordination centre.
The party is fielding MP candidates in all three constituencies of Samut Sakhon, one of the five smallest provinces.
The candidates are Akkaradech Suwannachai in Constituency 1, Manote Iamprasert in Constituency 2 and Jomkwan Klabbankoh in Constituency 3.
Mr Uttama said he told the candidates the party was going “full steam ahead” in the run-up to the March 24 election now that Gen Prayut had signed on.
“Palang Pracharath may be a new party, having only been registered for three months. However, the party is united strongly by the members’ common ideology,” he said.
Mr Uttama, who recently quit as industry minister, denied the party was out to serve the vested interests of certain groups of people.
He insisted the PPRP has designed its policies to be inclusive, which also cover all areas of national problems.
