Voting takes place on Sunday 14 May. Current Prime Minister Prayuth Chan-o-cha enjoys little support, while the younger daughter of exiled former Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra is popular
On May 14, 52 million Thai voters will be called to the polls to elect the 500 MPs of the Chamber of Deputies. Polls favor the main opposition party, Pheu Thai, but the current prime minister, former general Prayuth Chan-o-cha, could win a third term if his alliance, the United Thai Nation Party, were to ally with one of the other conservative and pro-royal groupings.
The most popular candidate is Paethongtharn Shinawatra, 36, the youngest daughter of exiled former prime minister Thaksin Shinawatra, who was ousted in a coup in 2006. Thaksin’s sister Yingluck Shinawatra was also prime minister before being deposed in 2014 with a ruling by the Constitutional Court. She was succeeded by Niwatthamrong Boonsongpaisan, whose interim government lasted just 15 days: on May 22, Prayuth Chan-o-cha came to power leading yet another coup. Since then, the former general has strengthened the army and the monarchy, repressing youth demonstrations which in 2020 called for the end of the regime and pro-democracy reforms. The crime of lese-majeste, which is supposed to punish insults to the royal family, has been used to jail at least 1,800 activists in the past three years alone, with prison sentences of up to 15 years. Among the accused there are also over 280 minors, of which 41 are under 15.
In 2019, the National Council for Peace and Order (the name that the military junta assumed after the coup) appointed the 250 members of the Senate, who voted en bloc for the former general in the last election and will not be affected by the May vote. The two Houses of Parliament will meet by August to appoint the next prime minister, who will need at least 376 votes to govern.
Human rights defenders believe that current political circumstances prevent truly free and democratic elections from being held. Paethongtharn Shinawatra is considered a political neophyte and has conducted her electoral campaign by exploiting the consensus of entrepreneurial families and proposing a populist agenda. While some analysts have underlined the importance of the economic issue after the downward estimates on Thai growth (among the slowest in South-East Asia), others have highlighted the role that young people could once again play, among which the 42-year-old Pita Limjaroenrat, leader of the progressive Move Forward party and in second place in the polls, but with a clear gap from Shinawatra.