BANGKOK: Thailand’s embattled prime minister will hold talks with party leaders in his ruling coalition Thursday as he seeks to control growing divisions that could lead to early elections later this year.
Prayut Chan-O-Cha heads a sprawling coalition facing criticism over his mismanagement of COVID-19, a pandemic economy still in the doldrums and simmering tensions over huge 2021 pro-democracy protests that have dominated the past 12 months.
The turbulent political atmosphere in Southeast Asia’s second-largest economy has seen a weakened opposition agitate for the prime minister to step down, calling for a no-confidence debate when parliament resumes in May.
And on Monday, Prayut’s one-time mentor, Deputy Prime Minister Prawit Wongsuwan, said early elections could be held after Thailand hosts the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) summit in November.
While the deputy prime minister has no power over when polls are held, it is the first government indication on the date of national elections — months ahead of Prayut’s term ending in March 2023.
Speaking after his deputy’s remarks, Prayut refused to comment on a possible election date.
If polls are held after the APEC summit — or sooner — analysts say they could return an unfavorable result for Prayut.
“A lot of Thais want to see General Prayut out of office,” said professor Thitinan Pongsudhirak at Bangkok’s Chulalongkorn University.
“The economy is not doing well. The population still remembers the early pandemic incompetence when there were no vaccines in the country.”
Thailand’s economy has been hammered by the pandemic, growing by just 1.6 percent last year after a 6.2 percent contraction in 2020 — its worst performance since the 1997 Asian financial crisis.
Paul Chambers, of the Center of ASEAN Community Studies at Naresuan University in Thailand, believes the longer the premier can stave off elections, the better it will be for him.
“Prayut is so unpopular today that he could only be re-elected with the Senate’s help,” he said, a reference to Bangkok’s second chamber, which is stacked with pro-government figures.
“Thus, waiting as long as possible for the Senate to help him win re-election best helps Prayut sustain his power.”
The former army chief, who led a 2014 coup before taking power as prime minister after the 2019 election, leads a 16-party coalition that holds 248 seats compared with the opposition’s 208.
But his base is fragmenting. In January, a faction of 20 MPs from his Palang Pracharat party was kicked out over internal squabbles.
And last month, seven ministers from a junior coalition party refused to attend a cabinet meeting in a row over an extension to the concession for Bangkok’s Sky Train urban railway.
Prayut has sought to buttress his coalition by reaching out to smaller groups and must drum up enough support to survive a no-confidence debate tabled by the opposition when parliament reconvenes in May.
Titipol Phakdeewanich, dean of the political science faculty at Ubon Ratchathani University, said the mechanism was more of a pressure gauge for the opposition, and not likely to bring down the government.
In any case, the constitution drafted in 2017 tilts the scales in favor of pro-military parties.
In 2019, Prayut’s party was only the second-largest in terms of seats, but with the help of the Senate, stuffed with supporters, managed to form a coalition.
Thailand faces early election as coalition cracks widen
https://arab.news/n63ht
Thailand faces early election as coalition cracks widen
- PM Prayut Chan-O-Cha heads a sprawling coalition facing criticism over his mismanagement of COVID-19
SpaceX acquires xAI in record-setting deal as Musk looks to unify AI and space ambitions
- The deal is the biggest M&A transaction of all time
- Deal values xAI at $250 billion, SpaceX at $1 trillion
Elon Musk said on Monday that SpaceX has acquired his artificial-intelligence startup xAI in a record-setting deal that unifies Musk’s AI and space ambitions by combining the rocket-and-satellite company with the maker of the Grok chatbot. The deal, first reported by Reuters last week, represents one of the most ambitious tie-ups in the technology sector yet, combining a space-and-defense contractor with a fast-growing AI developer whose costs are largely driven by chips, data centers and energy. It could also bolster SpaceX’s data-center ambitions as Musk competes with rivals like Alphabet’s Google, Meta, Amazon-backed Anthropic and OpenAI in the AI sector.
The transaction values SpaceX at $1 trillion, and xAI at $250 billion, according to a person familiar with the matter.
“This marks not just the next chapter, but the next book in SpaceX and xAI’s mission: scaling to make a sentient sun to understand the Universe and extend the light of consciousness to the stars!” Musk said. The purchase of xAI sets a new record for the world’s largest M&A deal, a distinction held for more than 25 years when Vodafone bought Germany’s Mannesmann in a hostile takeover valued at $203 billion in 2000, according to data compiled by LSEG. The combined company of SpaceX and xAI is expected to price shares at about $527 each, another person familiar with the matter said. SpaceX was already the world’s most valuable privately held company, last valued at $800 billion in a recent insider share sale. XAI was last valued at $230 billion in November, according to the Wall Street Journal. The merger comes as the space company plans a blockbuster public offering this year that could value it at over $1.5 trillion, two people familiar with the matter said.
SpaceX, xAI and Musk did not immediately respond to requests for comment.
The deal further consolidates Musk’s far-flung business empire and fortunes into a tighter, mutually reinforcing ecosystem – what some investors and analysts informally call the “Muskonomy” – which already includes Tesla, brain-chip maker Neuralink and tunnel firm the Boring Company. The world’s richest man has a history of merging his ventures together. Musk folded social media platform X into xAI through a share swap last year, giving the AI startup access to the platform’s data and distribution. In 2016, he used Tesla’s stock to buy his solar-energy company SolarCity.
The agreement could draw scrutiny from regulators and investors over governance, valuation and conflicts of interest given Musk’s overlapping leadership roles across multiple firms, as well as the potential movement of engineers, proprietary technology and contracts between entities.
SpaceX also holds billions of dollars in federal contracts with NASA, the Department of Defense and intelligence agencies, which all have some authority to review M&A transactions for national security and other risks.
