By Blessing Nweke
Thailand’s Prime Minister Anutin Charnvirakul has dissolved parliament as the kingdom grapples with renewed deadly clashes along its border with Cambodia and mounting political deadlock at home, officials said Friday.
In a royal decree published in the official Royal Gazette, King Maha Vajiralongkorn approved the dissolution after Anutin, leader of the conservative Bhumjaithai Party, submitted a request late Thursday, citing the inability of his minority government to govern effectively. The decree triggers a constitutional requirement for a general election to be held within 45 to 60 days, likely by early February 2026.
Anutin, who took office in September 2025 as Thailand’s third prime minister in just over two years, posted on social media that he was “returning power to the people” — a phrase commonly used in the kingdom to signal a snap election.
The move comes amid intensifying border clashes with Cambodia, where deadly exchanges of heavy artillery and gunfire have killed at least 20 people and displaced hundreds of thousands of civilians on both sides of the frontier. Both Bangkok and Phnom Penh accuse the other of provoking the latest fighting, which erupted early this week along multiple contested sectors of the border.
Domestically, Anutin’s government had been weakened by its fragile parliamentary alliances. His Bhumjaithai Party’s recent vote to uphold the Senate’s veto power on constitutional changes fractured its coalition with the dominant People’s Party, which had threatened a no-confidence motion.
Thailand now enters election mode amid concerns over political stability, economic strain and the ongoing security crisis—testing both domestic governance and its diplomatic posture with a key neighbor.
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