Thai prime minister gets royal approval to dissolve Parliament and hold elections early next year

BANGKOK (AP) — Thailand’s Prime Minister Anutin Charnvirakul received royal permission Friday to dissolve Parliament, setting up general elections early next year.

The election for the House of Representatives would be held 45 to 60 days after the Royal Decree, a period while Anutin will head a caretaker government with limited powers and cannot approve a new budget.

Anutin posted on his Facebook late Thursday that “I’d like to return power to the people.”

The move comes at a tricky political moment, as Thailand is engaged in large-scale combat with Cambodia over long-disputed border claims. About two dozen people were reported killed in the fighting this week, while hundreds of thousands have been displaced on both sides.

Anutin has been prime minister for just three months, succeeding Paetongtarn Shinawatra, who served only a year in office.

Anutin won the September vote in Parliament with support from the main opposition People’s Party in exchange for a promise to dissolve Parliament within four months and organize a referendum on the drafting of a new constitution by an elected constituent assembly.

The issue of constitutional change appeared to trigger the dissolution, after the People’s Party threatened to call a non-confidence vote Thursday after Anutin’s Bhumjathai voted to retain one third of Senate votes in order to amend the constitution.

Anutin served in Paetongtarn’s Cabinet but resigned from his positions and withdrew his party from her coalition government in the wake of a political scandal related to border tensions with Cambodia.

Paetongtarn, daughter of former Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra, was dismissed from office after being found guilty of ethics violations over a politically compromising phone call with Cambodia’s Senate President Hun Sen ahead of July’s armed conflict.

The People’s Party said it would remain part of the opposition, leaving the new government potentially a minority one. The party, which runs on progressive platforms, has long sought changes to the constitution, imposed during a military government, saying they want to make it more democratic.

Thailand's Prime Minister Anutin Charnvirakul, right, gestures as he attends an event at the Government House in Bangkok, Thailand, Friday, Dec. 12, 2025. (AP Photo/Arnun Chonmahatrakool)

Thailand's Prime Minister Anutin Charnvirakul gestures as he attends an event at the government house in Bangkok, Thailand, Friday, Dec. 12, 2025. (AP Photo/Arnun Chonmahatrakool)

Thai residents cover in a shelter in Buriram province, Thailand, Thursday, Dec. 11, 2025. (AP Photo/Sakchai Lalit)

FILE - Cambodian Prime Minister Hun Manet, right, and Thailand's Prime Minister Anutin Charnvirakul, left, react during a signing ceremony on the sidelines of the ASEAN Summit in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, Sunday, Oct. 26, 2025. (AP Photo/Mark Schiefelbein, File)

TORONTO (AP) — A Canadian Conservative opposition lawmaker defected from his party and joined Prime Minister Mark Carney’s governing Liberals on Thursday, a move that leaves the Liberal Party just short of a simple majority of the seats in Parliament.

Michael Ma, who represents Markham–Unionville, is the second Canadian Conservative opposition lawmaker to join Carney’s Liberals in just over a month.

Ma said he entered politics “to focus on solutions, not division.”

“I have concluded that Prime Minister Mark Carney is offering the steady, practical approach we need to deliver on the priorities I hear every day while door knocking in Markham–Unionville,” Ma said in his statement.

The move puts the Liberals one seat shy of a majority government and being able to pass any bill without the support of an opposition party.

Carney joined hands and welcomed Ma at the Liberal Party Christmas party on Thursday night.

“Wow, such a big welcome,” Ma said.

Carney noted his coalition of supporters is growing.

“You are going to have a much better time spending Christmas with us than Christmas with the Kranks. We are all about Santa, not about the Grinch,” Carney joked.

The defection is a blow to Conservative leader Pierre Poilievre, who is facing a leadership review vote in January. Poilievre lost the last election in April and even his own seat in Parliament, but has since rejoined the House of Commons.

“Michael Ma was elected as a Conservative by the constituents of Markham-Unionville to fight against Liberal inflationary spending driving up the cost of living in his community,” Poilievre said in a statement on social media. “Today, he chose to endorse the very policies he was elected to oppose.”

Poilievre has lost three Conservative lawmakers in recent weeks. A third Conservative announced his resignation after talking to Carney about possibly crossing the floor.

Until this year, Poilievre was seen as a shoo-in to become Canada’s next prime minister and shepherd his Conservative Party back into power for the first time in a decade. Then, President Donald Trump declared economic war on the U.S.’s neighbor to the north and even threatened to make Canada the 51st state.

Carney has moved the Liberals to the center since replacing Justin Trudeau as prime minister and winning national elections.

“Two floor crossings in such a short period of time is rare, and other defections are always possible so the Conservative establishment must be extremely nervous right now,” said Daniel Béland, a political science professor at McGill University in Montreal.

“If another Conservative MP would cross the floor to join the Liberals, they would have a majority government, which would probably mean no federal elections any time soon and give more time to Poilievre’s adversaries within the Conservative Party of Canada to organize against him.”

Canada Prime Minister Mark Carney delivers remarks during the annual Equal Voice gala in Ottawa, Ontario, Wednesday, Dec. 10, 2025. (Spencer Colby/The Canadian Press via AP)