Palang Pracharath Party (, , ; ) is a Thai civil-military political party with ties to the National Council for Peace and Order, the military junta that ruled the country after the 2014 coup. It was established in 2018 by Chuan Chuchan () and Suchart Jantarachotikul ().
The party is led by current Deputy PM Prawit Wongsuwan.
In the 2019 Thai general election, Palang Pracharath's candidate for prime minister was incumbent prime minister and military junta leader, Prayut Chan-o-cha. Although Palang Pracharath came 2nd in the polls, it successfully nominated Prayut and formed a coalition government with votes from 249 senators, and MPs from the Democrat and Bhumjaithai parties.
Prior to the 2023 general election, several former members of Palang Pracharath split off to form the United Thai Nation Party, and were later joined by Prayut Chan-o-cha.
Founding
Co-founder Suchart Jantarachotikul is a retired army colonel who was a classmate of Prayut Chan-o-cha at the Armed Forces Academies Preparatory School, shortly served as a member of parliament of the New Aspiration Party representing Songkhla Province in 1992 and was a member of the junta-appointed National Reform Steering Assembly from 2015 to 2017.
Palang Pracharath supported Prayut Chan-o-cha, who had ruled the country as the head of the military junta since the 2014 coup d'état, in the 2019 election. While multiple parties supported Prayut, the party was viewed as the "official pro-junta party" or "pro-Prayut party" because many party leaders are also junta cabinet members and advisors. Additionally, the party's name, Palang Pracharath, was the same as the junta's key policy initiative.
The party is supported by the Sam Mitr ("Three Friends" or "Three Allies") group of former prime minister Thaksin Shinawatra's cabinet ministers: Somsak Thepsuthin, Suriya Jungrungreangkit, and current deputy prime minister Somkid Jatusripitak. The group has tried to win over former members of parliament from the pro-Thaksin Pheu Thai Party (and its predecessors Thai Rak Thai and People's Power Party), the Red Shirts movement, as well as the Democrat Party. The Sam Mitr, by operating as a group of friends, were able to mobilize politically while at the time, parties were not allowed to.
In November 2018, the Sam Mitr group and over 150 former members of parliament formally joined Palang Pracharath. As of November, at least 44 were former Pheu Thai, People's Power Party (Palang Prachachon), and Thai Rak Thai Party MPs. Additionally, at least 14 came over from the Democrat Party.
2019 Elections
Since its founding, the party has been widely criticized for its leaders' close relationship to the junta and alleged abuse of their cabinet positions to fund-raise and campaign for Palang Pracharath. While Prayut had strong ties to Palang Pracharath, campaigned in a quasi-political fashion to promote himself in 2017-2018 prior to election campaigning being legally permitted, and was seen as its real leader, he was not an official member of the party. In late January, 2019, after the publication of the royal decree formalizing the election, four Prayut cabinet ministers resigned from their positions to campaign full-time. As, under the new constitution, parties are allowed to name non-members as their prime minister candidates, the following day, the party announced their three candidates for prime minister would be Prayut Chan-o-cha, Uttama Savanayana, and current deputy prime minister, Somkid Jatusripitak. On February 8, 2019, the party announced that their only PM candidate would be Prayut. Uttama, party leader, remarked that with Prayut as the PM candidate, Palang Pracharath would become "invincible."
Prayut was nominated and was duly elected Prime Minister of Thailand by members of the lower house and every member of the junta-appointed Senate save one, returning him to the position he had held as junta leader.