Elections in Thailand: Prime Minister Prayut further behind according to poll

Only about 11 percent of respondents told the National Institute of Development Administration (NIDA) they wanted to vote for the prime minister’s United Thai Nation Party. The party is well behind in third place.

With 47 percent approval, the opposition party Pheu Thai, with its top candidate Paetongtarn Shinawatra, remains in first place. The 36-year-old is the daughter of former Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra, who lives in exile in Dubai. In second place is the opposition party Move Forward with just under 22 percent.

At a campaign event over the weekend, the head of government was calm: “It is the right of the people to decide who to vote for and in whose hands to place the future of the nation,” Prayut said, according to the Bangkok Post. .

The kingdom’s last elections were held in March 2019 – the first since the military coup in May 2014. Prayut Chan-o-cha, who led the coup as a general, emerged victorious and was elected to a second term, as the Prime Minister confirmed. .

However, thanks to the new constitution introduced in 2017, he was and still is in an advantage: 250 senators elect the prime minister together with the 500 elected members of parliament. The members of the Senate were selected in 2018 by a committee set up by the military – and are therefore considered loyal to Prayut.

The outcome of the election is eagerly awaited as there are several possible scenarios. If the opposition parties agree on a coalition, they could succeed in seizing power. In 2020, there were mass protests again and again in the capital Bangkok. The democratic movement called, among other things, for the resignation of Prayut, new elections and a reform of the constitution and the monarchy. (sda/dpa)