Thailand's Move Forward Party confident of more support to form government

Pita Limjaroenrat, leader of the progressive Move Forward Party, which secured a stunning victory in Thailand’s election this week said on May 18 he was confident of building more support and being able form a stable and balanced government.

The leader of the progressive Move Forward Party that secured a stunning victory in Thailand's election this week said on May 18 he was confident of building more support and being able form a stable and balanced government.

Speaking at a press conference as part of an alliance of eight parties with about 313 of the 500 lower house seats, leader Pita Limjaroenrat said there was a team in place to muster support to ensure the alliance could secure enough seats to rule.

"There is a committee and negotiation team in place to find out what I further need, the seats I need, so there is stability and no loss of balance in governing," he said.

He added: "My coalition is taking shape. And we have a very clear roadmap from today and until the day I become PM." Pita and his allies say they have a mandate from the electorate to end nearly a decade of conservative, army-backed rule in Southeast Asia's second-largest economy.

The alliance overnight added two more members and three seats but it still appears short of the 376 votes needed from the 750-member bicameral legislature to vote in a Prime Minister to form a government.

The challenge for the alliance is winning votes from the 250 members of the upper house Senate, a chamber that was appointed by a junta after a 2014 coup and has a record of siding with army-backed parties.

Those parties were thrashed in Sunday's election by Move Forward and the populist heavyweight Pheu Thai, but the prospect of a pro-military bloc forming a minority government — assuming they have the Senate's support - cannot be ruled out.