Court clears the way for Thai Parliament to pick a new prime minister 3 months after elections

By JINTAMAS SAKSORNCHAI
Associated Press

BANGKOK (AP) — Thailand’s Constitutional Court has cleared the way for Parliament to vote for a new prime minister more than three months after national elections by declining to rule on a complaint over the rejection of the winning party’s leader. The court had been asked to decide whether Parliament had violated the constitution by refusing to allow the leader of the progressive Move Forward Party to be nominated for a second time as a prime ministerial candidate. Party leader Pita Limjaroenrat had lost an initial vote in Parliament after most members of the conservative military-appointed Senate voted against him. The combined Parliament then refused to allow him to be renominated for a second vote.