Thailand's next government already 'hanging by a thread'

Junta leader likely to gain slim lower house majority in deal with Democrats

20190528 Prayuth

Although Thai junta leader Prayuth Chan-ocha is close to retaining his job as prime minister, his next government has been tagged as fragile. © AP

MARWAAN MACAN-MARKAR, Asia regional correspondent

BANGKOK -- Prayuth Chan-ocha, Thailand's junta leader and incumbent prime minister, faces trying times as he steps into an unfamiliar political ring: a parliament where his pro-junta coalition is likely to have a wafer-thin majority.

It will be a far cry from the absolute control Prayuth enjoyed over the junta's rubber-stamp parliament during five years of military rule, seasoned observers say. He was then fortified by Section 44, but his new administration will be shorn of what became known as the "dictator's law."

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