Thailand’s pro-democracy opposition has scored a landslide victory in the general election as voters rebuke the military in a high-profile election campaign that could signal Thailand’s first handover of power in a decade.
The Progressive Forward Party and Pheu Thai Party are expected to win about 290 seats together. sea breamA 500-seat House of Representatives, based on the preliminary results of the Electoral Commission.
Move Forward leader Pita Rimjaroenrat, who was educated at Harvard and Massachusetts Institute of Technology, tweeted on Sunday that he was “ready” to become prime minister. “We believe that Thailand, which we love, can be better. Change is possible.”
He said he expects coalition talks to begin with Pheu Thai Party, led by billionaire telecoms tycoon and populist ex-prime minister’s youngest daughter, Petongtarn Shinawatra. Thaksin Shinawatra. His chosen government was overthrown in a military coup in 2006.
But after a decade of coups, crackdowns and political turmoil, it remains unclear which opposition party will be able to lead the next government. A Senate filled with pro-military appointees is set to block the opposition prime minister, based on parliamentary rules drawn up by the military after the 2014 coup.
Thais vote not only for constituency members, but also for political parties, and are allocated additional seats proportionally. So far, Pheu Thai Party has 111 constituencies and Mu Forward has 113 seats. Final results may not be available for several weeks.
Move Forward’s success in its second national poll reflects a backlash against Thailand’s highly conservative royalist-military regime, and congruence among urban and young voters after the 2020 anti-monarchy protests. It reflects the popularity of the party. In the capital Bangkok, the party won 31 out of 32 seats. .
The party’s supporters “have grown up in an era of political polarization marked by protests, coups and repressions,” said Napon Jatripitak, a research fellow at the Singapore-based Iseas Yusof Ishak Institute. says.
The Pheu Thai Party, which has won every election since 2001, remains popular throughout the rural Northeast, where Thaksin’s anti-poverty policies are fondly remembered.
Political parties aligned with the military suffered a crushing defeat along with the Thai National Party, a supporter of the incumbent prime minister. Prayuth Chan-ochareceived only about 9 percent of the 23 precinct seats.
The ruling Paran Pracharath party, led by Prayuth’s deputy prime minister and long-time leader Prawit Wongsuwan, won 10 percent of the 39 seats, following divisions in the government.
Former military commander Prayuth, who seized power in 2014 after ousting Thaksin’s sister Yingluck Shinawatra, has been accused by human rights groups of suppressing civil liberties. quell the 2020 protests. On Sunday he said he “respects democracy and elections”.
The opposition’s authoritarian stance may not lead to government domination. Thailand’s 2017 constitution gives the military a major edge, allowing a fixed 250-seat upper house appointed by the military junta to vote for the prime minister alongside an elected 500-seat lower house. This creates a threshold of at least 376 seats for the opposition to secure its own prime minister and form a government.
One of the leading candidates is the regional Bumjathai Party, which comes in third with 12.7% of the vote and secures 68 constituencies.
There is also the risk of a military takeover or judicial intervention to disqualify opposition candidates.
Move Forward’s Pita has already been sued by the Electoral Commission for ownership of the broadcaster’s shares. An early leader of Move Forward was banned from politics for a decade for similar offenses.
Move Forward’s proposals for military and monarchy reforms, such as abolishing conscription and reforming draconian institutions blasphemy Law may also be an obstacle to coalition talks.
The plan is seen as an “existing threat” by the regime, said Thitinan Ponsudhirak, director of the Institute for Security and International Studies at Chulalongkorn University in Bangkok.
“It will be very difficult to reform the old order without some kind of conflict,” he said.
