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SUBJECT [May 27] Thailand elects House and Senate Speakers, Iran Majlis re-elects Speaker Ali Larijani, UK PM May announces resignation, European Parliament elections
DATE 2019-05-27
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PHOTO: AP. Former Thai Prime Minister Chuan Leekpai arrives at parliament in Bangkok on Friday.

 

A military-aligned candidate won majority support to become Thailand’s House Speaker on Saturday, May 15, 2019. Former Prime Minister Chuan Leekpai, 80, was named Speaker after the House of Representatives voted 258-235 in his favor in the first working session of the lower chamber. He ran against former Deputy Prime Minister Sompong Amorvivat from the Pheu Thai Party.

 

Under the Thai constitution, the House Speaker will also be the president of the National Assembly who will convene the lower House and the Senate jointly to elect a new Prime Minister.

 

The pro-military Palang Pracharath Party which nominated Chuan is expected to lead a new government that is headed by the junta leader Prayuth Chan-ocha who staged the coup and has served as Prime Minister since then.

 

The vote for the Prime Minister will be jointly taken by the 500-member House and the 250-member Senate. Newly elected House Speaker Chuan has not yet called for a date on the joint session.

 

Meanwhile, Thailand’s former National Legislative Assembly President Pornpetch Wichitcholchai has been named Senate Speaker upon the opening of the post-election parliament on Friday. Singsuek Singphrai was named first deputy Senate Speaker, and Supachai Somcharoen, former chairman of the Election Commission, was named second deputy Senate Speaker.

 

https://www.japantimes.co.jp/news/2019/05/26/asia-pacific/politics-diplomacy-asia-pacific/thailands-parliament-elects-pro-army-candidate-house-speaker/#.XOsqE9IzZhE

http://www.xinhuanet.com/english/2019-05/25/c_138089186.htm

http://www.xinhuanet.com/english/2019-05/25/c_138088153.htm

 

 

 

 

 

PHOTO: Maryam Kamyab/MEHR News Agency. Speaker of the Parliament of Iran, Ali Larijani (center).

 

On Sunday, May 26, the Iranian Majlis re-elected Speaker Ali Larijani to remain in his post for a new term, according to the official IRNA news agency.

 

Speaker Larijani got 155 votes from 274 MPs present, while reformist Muhammad Riza Arif won 105 votes.

 

Reformist lawmaker Masoud Pezeshkian was also re-elected as the first vice-speaker of the Parliament, but the second vice-speaker, Ali Motahari, also a reformist, failed to win enough votes, and will be replaced by Abdolreza Mesri, a conservative lawmaker who served as the Labour Minister during President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad’s first term in office (2005-2009).

 

The other members of the Majlis presidium include Behrouz Nemati, Mohammad Ashouri, Assadollah Abbasi, Mohammad Ali Vakili, Ali Asghar Yousef Nejad, Alireza Rahimi, Amir Hossein Qazizadeh Hashemi, Ahmad Amirabadi Farahani and Akbar Ranjbarzadeh.

 

Larijani has been serving as the Speaker of the Iranian parliament since 2008; this re-election reinstates him for the 12th consecutive year as Speaker, making him the longest serving head of the Iranian Parliament.

 

The Iranian parliament currently has 290 representatives, changed from the previous 272 seats since the February 18, 2000 election. The last parliamentary polls were held on February 26, 2016. The lawmakers take the seats for a four-year term, and the Speaker serves a renewable one-year term.

 

https://en.radiofarda.com/a/iran-s-parliament-reelects-speaker-while-outspoken-vice-speaker-is-voted-out/29963638.html

https://ifpnews.com/exclusive/ali-larijani-re-elected-as-irans-parliament-speaker/

 

 

 

 

PHOTO: Economist. PM May announcing her resignation on May 24, 2019 in front of 10 Downing Street.

 

Having failed three times to get her Brexit deal through a hopelessly divided parliament, and confronted with a Tory insurrection over her proposed fourth attempt, PM May announced on May 24th that she would step down as leader of the Conservative Party and Britain’s prime minister.

 

Her successor will have to complete Brexit – a daunting task that PM May failed to deliver during her three years in office. While she succeeded in striking a divorce deal with the European Union, the plan was defeated three times in Parliament by British lawmakers from across the political spectrum. As the leader of the Conservative Party, her successor will also need to cope with the expected underperformance of the Party in the European Parliament elections and the overall decline in support for Conservatives as the 2019 local elections exemplified.

 

The EU has offered Britain an extension of Article 50 to October 31, but there still is no consensus among British lawmakers about how or even if the country should leave the bloc.

 

With the announcement of PM May’s resignation, some 20 MPs have put their hats in the ring. The best-known contestant is former Foreign Secretary Boris Johnson, who has said he will take Britain out of the EU on October 31 even if no deal has been reached with EU leaders. Former House of Commons leader Andrea Leadsom, former Brexit Secretary Gominic Raab, Health Secretary Matt Hancock, International Development Secretary Rory Stewart, Home Secretary Sajid Javid, and Foreign Secretary Jeremy Hunt are among those who have announced their willingness to run as May’s successor.

 

The Conservative Party chooses its leaders in a two-step process: first, there is a series of votes among the party’s legislators to establish the top contenders, and then those names are submitted to a nationwide vote by about 120,000 party members. The process is expected to last until the end of June.

 

https://www.economist.com/britain/2019/05/24/british-politics-after-theresa-may

Korea Herald Newspaper, https://www.bbc.com/news/uk-politics-48379730

https://www.theguardian.com/politics/ng-interactive/2019/may/02/local-elections-2019-live-results-for-english-councils

 

 

 

 

PHOTO: EPA. The European Parliament is the EU’s law-making body with 751 MEPs who are directly elected by EU voters every five years.

 

The big center-right and center-left blocs in the European Parliament have lost their combined majority in the European Parliament amid an increase in support for liberals, Greens and nationalists.

 

The center-right European People's Party (EPP) remains the largest bloc, and is expected to form a pro-EU coalition. The Liberals and Greens had a good night, while nationalists were set for victory in Italy and France. Populists gained ground in some countries but fell short of the very significant gains some had predicted.

 

Turnout was the highest for 20 years, at 51% across 28 member states.

 

Based on current estimates, the previously dominant conservative EPP and Socialists and Democrats (S&D) blocs will be unable to form a "grand coalition" in the EU parliament without support. The EPP was projected to win 179 seats, down from the 216 in 2014. The S&D looked set to drop to 150 seats from 191. Pro-EU parties are still expected to hold a majority of seats however, largely due to gains made by the liberal Alliance of Liberals and Democrats for Europe (ALDE) bloc.

 

In Germany, both major centrist parties suffered. Angela Merkel's Christian Democrats dropped from 35% of the vote in 2014 to 28%, while the center-left Social Democratic Union fell from 27% to 15.5%.

 

In the UK, the newly formed Brexit Party, led by Nigel Farage, took an early lead with 32% of the vote, amid gains for the Liberal Democrats and significant losses for the major Conservative and Labor parties.

 

In France, Marie Le Pen's National Rally party - formerly the National Front - celebrated victory over President Macron's party, securing 24% of the vote to his 22.5%.

 

In Hungary, Viktor Orban, whose anti-immigration Fidesz party won 52% the vote and 13 of the country's 21 seats, was also a big winner.

 

In Spain, the ruling Socialist party (PSOE) took a clear lead with 32.8% of the vote and 20 seats, while the far-right Vox party won just 6.2% and three seats - coming in fifth.

 

The Greek Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras called for an early election after the opposition conservative New Democracy party won 33.5% of the votes to 20% for his Syriza party.

 

https://www.bbc.com/news/world-europe-48417744

https://www.theguardian.com/politics/live/2019/may/26/european-elections-2019-results-eu-election-parliament-brexit-party-farage-tories-may-live

https://edition.cnn.com/europe/live-news/european-elections-results-intl/index.html

 

 

BY MSEAP Cyber Secretariat (mseap@assembly.go.kr)