Experienced Thai politician Anutin Charnvirakul won a vote in Parliament on Friday to become the country’s next prime minister, according to an unofficial running tally broadcast live on television.

Anutin, leader of the Bhumjaithai party, secured more than 247 votes, the required majority, from the House of Representatives’ 492 active members. His total still needs to be certified after the voting concludes. He and his government are expected to assume office in the next few days after receiving a formal appointment from King Maha Vajiralongkorn.

Anutin succeeds Paetongtarn Shinawatra, who was dismissed by court order as prime minister last week after being found guilty of ethics violations over a politically compromising phone call with Cambodia’s Senate President Hun Sen.

The dispute escalated into a deadly five-day armed conflict in July.

Anutin had served in Paetongtarn’s Cabinet, but he resigned and withdrew his party from her coalition government after the news of the leaked phone call sparked a public uproar.

Only five candidates, nominated during the 2023 general election, were eligible under Thailand’s constitutional rules.

Pheu Thai, which is currently leading a caretaker government, tried to dissolve Parliament on Tuesday, but the acting prime minister said their request was rejected by the king’s Privy Council.

The 58-year-old Anutin had earlier served in the Pheu Thai-led coalition government that came to power in 2023 and before that in the military-backed but elected government under former Prime Minister Prayuth Chan-ocha.

Anutin is best known for successfully lobbying for the decriminalisation of cannabis, a policy that is now being more tightly regulated for medical purposes. He also played a high-profile role as health minister during the COVID-19 pandemic, when he faced criticism for being slow in securing sufficient vaccines to fight the virus.

His party has promised to dissolve Parliament within four months in exchange for support from the People’s Party. That party’s leader, Natthaphong Ruengpanyawut, said it would remain in the opposition, leaving the new government possibly a minority one.

The People’s Party also said that an Anutin-led government would have to commit to organising a referendum on the drafting of a new constitution by an elected constituent assembly. The party has long pushed for changes to the constitution, which was introduced under a military government, to make it more democratic.

The People’s Party, then called the Move Forward Party, won the most seats in the 2023 election but was kept from power when a joint vote of the House and the Senate failed to approve its candidate for prime minister.

Senators, who were appointed by a military government and were strong supporters of Thailand’s royalist conservative establishment, opposed the progressive party because they rejected its policy of seeking reforms to the monarchy.

The Senate no longer has the right to take part in the vote for the prime minister.

After Move Forward was blocked from governing, Pheu Thai succeeded in having one of its candidates, real estate executive Srettha Thavisin, approved as prime minister to lead a coalition government. But he served only a year before the Constitutional Court dismissed him from office for ethical violations.

Srettha’s replacement, Paetongtarn, the daughter of former Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra, also held the post for just a year. Even before she was removed, her government was severely weakened when Anutin’s Bhumjaithai Party pulled out of her coalition shortly after her controversial June call with Cambodia’s Hun Sen.

This withdrawal left Pheu Thai’s coalition with only a small and fragile majority in Parliament.