The 11-party alliance holds 314 house seats – 141 of which belonging to Pheu Thai – and should have no difficulty electing a prime minister on Friday, providing it remains intact.
To become premier a candidate needs the approval of more than half of the current 493 lawmakers.
Bhumjaithai, the second-biggest party in the alliance with 70 seats, guaranteed Pheu Thai its backing.
“Bhumjaithai, as a coalition partner, gladly supports the PM candidates of Pheu Thai,” leader Anutin Charnvirakul said.
Parliament’s biggest force, People’s Party, formed last week after a court dissolved predecessor Move Forward, signalled on Thursday it would not back Pheu Thai’s candidate and would continue to lead the opposition.
Pheu Thai must decide whether to go with party stalwart Chaikasem, or give a baptism of fire to neophyte Paetongtarn, and risk the kind of backlash that saw her father and aunt Yingluck Shinawatra both toppled in coups before fleeing into exile to avoid jail.
“If it’s Paetongtarn, she would be open to attack … If you ask Thaksin, he probably wants her to be prime minister,” said Titipol Phakdeewanich, a political scientist at Ubon Ratchathani University.
“The risk for Paetongtarn is higher. If Pheu Thai can’t deliver anything then it could be the end of the Shinawatra family in politics.”
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