Thai parliament set to vote for prime minister

Thailand's parliament is set to vote for a new prime minister on July 13.

House speaker Wan Muhamad Noor Matha made the announcement on Wednesday, a day after he was endorsed in the role.

The endorsement enabled him to call for a joint sitting of the country's bicameral legislature to vote on the next prime minister.

The election-winning Move Forward party and populist Pheu Thai trounced conservative rivals in a May ballot, securing 151 and 141 seats in the 500-member lower house, respectively.

Together with six other parties they are expected to propose Move Forward leader, the US-educated Pita Limjaroenrat, as the next premier to replace the incumbent Prayuth Chan-ocha.

However, with 312 votes the alliance is short of the 376 votes that Pita needs in the joint sitting, which includes a conservative-leaning 250-member senate, who were appointed during military rule.