Posts misleadingly claim PM Prayut will lead Thailand's development until 2027

"The Royal Gazette announced that General Prayut Chan-O-Cha has been appointed as the chairman of the National Strategy Committee from 2023 through 2027. Chairman of the National Strategy Committee means #PowerOvertheGovernment!!" reads a Thai-language Facebook post shared on May 23, 2023.

Thailand's National Strategy Committee is tasked with steering the kingdom's development in accordance with a 20-year framework launched in October 2018 (archived link).

The National Strategy is legally binding on governments between 2018 and 2037. Local newspaper Khaosod cited critics as saying that they see it as a tool to prolong the power of the military junta that staged a coup in 2014 (archived link here and here).

The post, which has been shared more than 110 times, includes a screenshot of an announcement in the government-run Royal Gazette and an infographic showing Prayut as the committee's chair.

Image

Screenshot of the misleading Facebook post, captured on May 24, 2023.

The claim circulated following elections on May 14 that saw voters turn out in record numbers to deliver a brutal verdict on former coup leader Prayut and the ruling conservative army-linked parties.

The progressive Move Forward Party (MFP) emerged as the biggest party and is attempting to form a coalition government, but as of May 30, it was not clear who would become the country's next prime minister.

The coalition had more than 300 seats in the 500-seat House of Representatives, but the country's future prime minister is voted on not just by the House of Representatives, but also by the unelected Senate. All 250 senators were appointed by the military after the last coup.

The incumbent Deputy Prime Minister Wissanu Krea-ngam said on May 23 that the National Assembly will vote on August 3 for a new prime minister, according to a report by the Thai Public Broadcasting Service (archived link).

Similar claims about Prayut retaining power were shared on Twitter here, TikTok here and Facebook here.

Comments on the posts suggest some users were misled.

"That's good news! Prayut is one step ahead of the Move Forward Party," reads one comment.

Another said: "I want Prayut to remain as the chairman even longer than 2027."

The position of chair of the National Strategy Committee, however, is filled by whomever is Thailand's prime minister.

Ex officio position

"It's written in the National Strategy Act that Thailand's prime minister is ex officio chair of the strategic plan," Siripan Nogsuan Sawasdee, a political analyst and professor at Chulalongkorn University, told AFP on May 25 (archived link).

Section 12 of the National Strategy Act states the "Prime Minister is the chair" of the committee overseeing national strategy (archived link).

Jade Donavanik, a legal academic and former adviser to Thailand's Constitution Drafting Committee, told AFP on May 29 that this means the position of the chair filled by whomever is prime minister at the time, "not specifically Prayut" (archived link).

Thailand's National Economic and Social Development Council (NESDC) also refuted the claim in a statement published on May 24 (archived link).

"We, as the Secretariat of the National Strategy Board, would like to clarify that a prime minister is, by right of office, the chair of the National Strategy Committee," the statement reads.

And, in a now-deleted statement published on the same day, government spokesperson Anucha Burapachaisri said the Prime Minister's Office stands by the NESDC statement (archived link).

"A prime minister is, by right of office, the chair of the National Strategy Committee, as written in the Section 12 of the 2017 National Strategy Act," he said.

Old screenshots

Reverse image searches on Google of the screenshots shared in the false post showed they contained no information about Prayut staying on as committee chair until 2027.

The infographic was originally published by iLaw, a legal watchdog, on Twitter on July 20, 2019 (archived link).

Posted a month after Prayut was elected as prime minister in June 2019, it shows Prayut -- by virtue of being prime minister -- as the committee's chair (archived link).

"Thailand has changed the government, but the National Strategy Committee hardly did," reads part of the tweet's caption.

The screenshot of the Royal Gazette announcement was initially released on January 19, 2023 (archived link).

But it makes no mention of Prayut being appointed to serve as the National Strategy Committee's chair until 2027. It instead says five dignitaries had been appointed to the committee.

AFP has previously debunked misinformation that has circulated during the 2023 Thai election here, here, and here.