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Thailand’s election-winning Move Forward Party excluded from coalition
- MFP won most seats in May, supported by many fed up with army-backed rule who liked reformist leader Pita Limjaroenrat, but had no majority
- Angry MFP supporters have burned effigies and shouted abuse outside offices of Pheu Thai, MFP’s closest rival, which announced the exclusion
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The reformist party that won Thailand’s general election was excluded Wednesday from a coalition trying to form the next government, as lawmakers seek to overcome resistance from military and pro-royalist senators.
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The Move Forward Party (MFP) won the most seats in May’s election, riding a wave of support from young and urban Thais weary of almost a decade of army-backed rule, but it fell well short of a majority.
An eight-party coalition including MFP’s closest rival, Pheu Thai, was not enough to get its leader Pita Limjaroenrat elected prime minister, leaving the kingdom in political deadlock.
Harvard-educated Pita, 42, was blocked from the top job by the senate – whose members were hand-picked by the last junta – because of his determination to reform Thailand’s tough royal defamation laws.
After weeks of back room haggling, Pheu Thai leader Chonlanan Srikaew announced that MFP was out of the coalition.
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“The formation of the new government will not include MFP,” he told reporters.
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