He will replace Pol Maj Gen Achirawit Suphanphesat Wattanavrangkul, who will become Commissioner of Inspection Division 9, under the Office of the Inspector General in Bangkok, after just eight months in Phuket.
He, too, was previously in the deep south, as commander of Songkhla.
The moves were announced by the Royal Thai Police on Wednesday (August 29) after a meeting of the Office of the Police Commission (OPC) chaired by Deputy Prime Minister Chalerm Yubamrung, at which around 80 police commanders around Thailand were moved to new posts.
The meeting was controversial, with one of the five senior members of of the Commission walking out in reaction to what he alleged was political interference in the reshuffle.
Pol Gen Achirawit Suphanphesat, a former Deputy Commissioner of the Royal Thai Police, said walking out that the reshuffle had been “interfered with by a political figure” and was not based on merit alone.
He gave as an example the case of the Commander of Nakorn Sri Thammarat Provincial Police, Maj Gen Ronnapong Saikeaw, who, he said, had done outstanding work in wiping out a drug network in Nakorn Sri Thammarat prison.
But, he noted, Gen Ronnapong was not promoted to the post of a Deputy Commander of Police Region 8 as Gen Achirawit had expected. Instead, the OPC had promoted another, younger officer to that post.
After the meeting, Deputy PM Chalerm told media that the reshuffle was “appropriate” and there were “no problems”.
Gen Achirawit caused rumours to fly in 2007 when he resigned as deputy police chief of the country after his boss, Gen Kowit Wattana, was sidelined by the post-coup government of Surayud Chulanonda.
He denied that he was resigning to show his support for Gen Kowit.