By Martin Petty
BANGKOK (Reuters) -&nbsp;Thailand's&nbsp;Pheu&nbsp;Thai&nbsp;Party&nbsp;will&nbsp;attempt&nbsp;to&nbsp;form&nbsp;a&nbsp;government&nbsp;on&nbsp;Tuesday&nbsp;after&nbsp;weeks&nbsp;of&nbsp;post-election&nbsp;deadlock, with&nbsp;real&nbsp;estate&nbsp;tycoon&nbsp;Srettha&nbsp;Thavisin&nbsp;set&nbsp;to be&nbsp;nominated&nbsp;as&nbsp;prime&nbsp;minister&nbsp;and&nbsp;face&nbsp;a&nbsp;vote&nbsp;in&nbsp;parliament.
WHO IS&nbsp;SRETTHA?
Srettha, 60, is an outsider&nbsp;and&nbsp;political neophyte little known beyond&nbsp;Thailand. He joined the populist&nbsp;Pheu&nbsp;Thai&nbsp;in 2022&nbsp;and&nbsp;up until the May 14&nbsp;election&nbsp;was president of property developer Sansiri. He is not a member of&nbsp;parliament.
The six feet, 3 inch (1.92 m) tall&nbsp;Srettha&nbsp;is a finance graduate from the Claremont Graduate School in the United States who once worked for Procter &amp; Gamble in&nbsp;Thailand.
Though he has no experience in&nbsp;government, his political ascent has been largely welcomed by businesses&nbsp;and&nbsp;he is untainted by the bitter power struggles that have dogged&nbsp;Thai&nbsp;politics for nearly two decades.
WHY IS HE BEING&nbsp;NOMINATED&nbsp;FOR PM?
Pheu&nbsp;Thai&nbsp;came a close second in the&nbsp;election&nbsp;but its pact with the winner, the progressive Move Forward, fell through&nbsp;after&nbsp;that&nbsp;party's&nbsp;prime&nbsp;ministerial candidate Pita Limjaroenrat failed to win support from lawmakers allied with the royalist military.&nbsp;Pheu&nbsp;Thai&nbsp;is now leading the effort to&nbsp;form&nbsp;a&nbsp;government.
The billionaire Shinawatra family that founded&nbsp;Pheu&nbsp;Thai&nbsp;has a long&nbsp;and&nbsp;bitter history with the military, which ousted the&nbsp;governments of Thaksin Shinawatra&nbsp;and&nbsp;his sister, Yingluck Shinawatra, in 2006&nbsp;and&nbsp;2014 respectively.
Thaksin's youngest daughter, Paetongtarn, was another possible candidate for&nbsp;prime&nbsp;minister. But to&nbsp;Pheu&nbsp;Thai's rivals, newcomer&nbsp;Srettha&nbsp;could be a more palatable compromise than having another Shinawatra at the helm.
DOES&nbsp;SRETTHA&nbsp;HAVE&nbsp;PARLIAMENT'S BACKING?
Fourteen parties have pledged support for&nbsp;Srettha&nbsp;and&nbsp;Pheu&nbsp;Thai&nbsp;in the lower house, but the biggest stumbling block will be the upper house Senate, whose 249 members were appointed by the generals who toppled&nbsp;Pheu&nbsp;Thai's last&nbsp;government.
The military created the rules under which a&nbsp;prime&nbsp;minister&nbsp;is selected, with the Senate essentially protecting establishment interests by serving as a bulwark against elected progressive politicians.
The Senate's largely conservative members were instrumental in ensuring Move Forward's Pita failed&nbsp;and&nbsp;it is unclear how many will see&nbsp;Srettha&nbsp;and&nbsp;Pheu&nbsp;Thai&nbsp;as a better option.
Srettha&nbsp;needs 375&nbsp;votes, or more than half of the combined lower&nbsp;and&nbsp;upper houses.&nbsp;Pheu&nbsp;Thai's alliance has 11 parties with a combined 314 seats,&nbsp;and&nbsp;three more lower-house lawmakers backing it, so it needs the&nbsp;votes of 58 Senators.
WHAT'S DIFFERENT THIS TIME?
The military-backed United&nbsp;Thai&nbsp;Nation&nbsp;and&nbsp;Palang Pracharat parties that were instrumental in thwarting Move Forward have joined the alliance backing&nbsp;Srettha.
But scepticism remains about how firm that support is, given the army's years-long efforts to undermine&nbsp;Pheu&nbsp;Thai. To have such backing from its enemies indicates some kind of once unthinkable power-sharing agreement may have been made behind the scenes.
That would boost&nbsp;Srettha's chances of winning the backing of Senators allied with the army.
However, given the fraught history, there will be doubts about the effectiveness of such a coalition, how long a&nbsp;Pheu&nbsp;Thai-led&nbsp;government&nbsp;might last,&nbsp;and&nbsp;whether the military&nbsp;and&nbsp;allies in key institutions might try to push&nbsp;Pheu&nbsp;Thai&nbsp;out later.
An opinion poll published on the weekend showed many&nbsp;Thais were not happy with the idea of a&nbsp;Pheu&nbsp;Thai-military pact.
WHAT ROLE IS THAKSIN SHINAWATRA PLAYING?
Officially, none, but as the self-exiled figurehead of the&nbsp;Pheu&nbsp;Thai&nbsp;political juggernaut, it is almost certain Thaksin would have been involved in any deal made between rival camps.
Thaksin, 74, is a fugitive in&nbsp;Thailand&nbsp;and&nbsp;plans to return on&nbsp;Tuesday, the same day as the&nbsp;vote,&nbsp;after&nbsp;17 years abroad dodging jail sentences handed down in absentia for abuse of power&nbsp;and&nbsp;more.
The change of heart suggests Thaksin is confident the&nbsp;vote&nbsp;will go in&nbsp;Pheu&nbsp;Thai's way&nbsp;and&nbsp;any deal he has with old enemies will hold - including over his incarceration - despite the history of mistrust&nbsp;and&nbsp;betrayal. Some people in&nbsp;Thailand, however, are sceptical about Thaksin's promised homecoming&nbsp;and&nbsp;see it as political theatre.
&nbsp;
(Editing by Robert Birsel)

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