Bangkok: After military-appointed lawmakers thwarted his initial bid, the liberal front-runner for the position of Thailand's next prime minister declared on Saturday that he would resign from the race if parliament did not support him by next week.

After nine years of army-backed rule in the country, Pita Limjaroenrat's Move Forward Party (MFP) received the most votes and the most seats in the May elections.

But on Thursday, senators in parliament rejected the Harvard-educated millionaire's bid to head the next administration because they view his promise to rewrite stringent royal defamation laws as a red line.

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On Wednesday, the legislature will vote a second time for a new prime minister, and Pita declared that if he once again fell short of the required number of votes, he would support a candidate from the coalition partner Pheu Thai.
In a video address that was shared on social media, he apologized for the failure.

I'm willing to give Thailand a chance by allowing the party with the second-most votes to form the coalition.
Pita required 375 lawmakers to support him on the first ballot, but he fell 51 short.

Only 13 senators supported him, and many of them voiced their disapproval of MFP's promise to relax the royal defamation laws of the realm.

After the first vote, the party decided against making concessions on the laws it had suggested changing, which at the moment let convicted monarchy critics serve up to 15 years in prison.

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Political analyst Thitinan Pongsudhirak argued that the junta-drafted constitution, which all 250 senators were appointed under, was a solid barrier to the reformist agenda of the MFP.

"It is a way for the authority and the regime to stay in power over the long term and to prevent a pro-democracy government that can stand against them," he said to AFP on Friday.

On Saturday, Pita urged his supporters to be "creative" in pleading with senators to vote for him in the upcoming round.
"I can't sway the senators on my own. I therefore request your assistance in completing this mission," he said.
"Send a message to the senators in every way you can think of," the speaker instructed.

The Shinawatra political family, which includes two former prime ministers deposed by military coups in 2006 and 2014, is seen as a vehicle for the MFP's largest coalition partner, Pheu Thai.

If Pita's bid falls short once more, property tycoon Srettha Thavisin, 60, is expected to be Pheu Thai's candidate for prime minister.
He has been suggested as a potential compromise candidate because of his popularity among Thai influential elite business leaders.

Pita benefited from a wave of support as voters resoundingly rejected Prayut Chan-o-cha's army-backed rule, which lasted for almost ten years after the coup in 2014.

But conservative backers of the nation's establishment have vociferously opposed the MFP's reformist agenda.

A day after Thailand's top election body recommended the Constitutional Court suspend Pita as an MP, the Senate voted on his candidacy on Thursday, giving senators already planning to vote against him more reason to do so.

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The electoral commission suggested that Pita be expelled from the legislature due to claims that he violated campaign regulations.
The recommendation came as a result of an investigation into Pita's ownership of shares in a media company, which Thai law forbids MPs from possessing.

Pita has claimed that the shares were passed down to him from his father even though the station hasn't broadcast since 2007.
The MFP's stance on royal defamation laws has been compared to a plot to "overthrow" the constitutional monarchy, according to a case that will be heard by the Constitutional Court.