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Strong together thailand3/6/2023 In 2019, after almost five years of postponements, an election for the House of Representatives was contested by 77 political parties, most of which fell into one of two camps: promilitary or antimilitary. Under the military-drafted constitution, the bicameral National Assembly consists of the 250-seat Senate, whose members are appointed to five-year terms by the army, and the 500-seat House of Representatives, to which 350 members are directly elected to four-year terms in single-seat constituencies by simple majority vote, and 150 members are elected in a single nationwide constituency by party-list proportional representation vote. Prayuth maintained the position in 2019 through the support of a promilitary voting bloc in the lower house and votes from 249 appointed senators. In 2014, as army chief, Prayuth had staged a military coup against the democratically elected government and designated himself prime minister. The promilitary Palang Pracharat Party, which won only 115 out of 500 lower house seats in the 2019 elections, nominated incumbent prime minister Prayuth Chan-ocha to again serve in that position. According to the charter, Thailand’s prime minister is selected by a majority vote of the combined 500-seat elected lower house and the 250-seat upper house, the Senate, whose members are entirely appointed by the military. The constitution, which was developed by a committee appointed by the military’s National Council for Peace and Order (NCPO), was approved in a tightly controlled 2016 referendum and took effect in 2017. Although the monarchy has limited formal power, the king is highly influential in Thai politics, and has significant clout over the military. Thailand is a constitutional monarchy ruled by King Maha Vajiralongkorn, who serves as head of state. Beginning in November, lèse-majesté charges were leveled against dozens of activists, prompting human rights groups to express concern over the crackdown. In October, the government declared a “severe” state of emergency, banning gatherings of more than five people and initiating a crackdown against protesters and movement leaders.Hundreds of thousands of mostly student protesters participated in multiple antigovernment protests throughout the country, calling for an end to harassment of activists, abolition of Thailand’s parliament, constitutional reform, and reform of the powerful monarchy. Large youth-led protests, which began in February but were curtailed by COVID-19 restrictions, recommenced in July following an easing of lockdown measures.The Court’s ruling also removed several legislators from parliament and banned 10 members of the party’s leadership from politics for 10 years. In February, the opposition Future Forward Party was dissolved following a Constitutional Court ruling that its founder had used an illegal donation to fund the party.In March, the government issued an emergency decree, which it subsequently extended and tightened, that included measures widely criticized as empowering the regime against dissent rather than addressing the pandemic’s economic and social impact. According to University of Oxford researchers, Thailand registered under 7,500 confirmed cases and 63 COVID-19 deaths, making it one of the countries least severely affected by the pandemic.Emergency Assistance and Thematic Programs.Afghanistan Human Rights Coordination Mechanism.
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