Anutin Charnvirakul elected Thai PM, ends weeklong power vacuum

Anutin Charnvirakul was elected Thailand's prime minister in a parliamentary vote on Friday and received royal endorsement on Sunday, ending a weeklong power vacuum after his predecessor was removed by a court. The 58 year old leader of the conservative Bhumjaithai Party won the support of enough lawmakers to clear the lower house majority and has pledged to dissolve Parliament within four months and call fresh elections, as required by a backroom deal that secured his ascent.

Parliamentary tallies varied, with some counts showing Anutin comfortably above the 247 votes needed from the 492 active members of the House of Representatives and another tally putting his total at 311 votes; his rival Chaikasem Nitisiri received about 152 votes and there were roughly two dozen abstentions. The formal appointment by King Maha Vajiralongkorn was read by the lower house secretary general in a ceremony at Anutin's party headquarters on Sunday, where he took an oath and vowed to perform his duties with "honesty and virtue."

Anutin built his majority by cobbling together opposition blocs and securing conditional support from the largest parliamentary grouping, the Peoples Party. That party...