Thailand Elections
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Thailand held its elections yesterday. Opposition parties look like they have won big time.
"Thailand's main opposition parties easily bested other contenders with virtually all the votes counted from Sunday's general election, fulfilling many voters' hopes that the balloting would serve as a pivotal chance for change nine years after incumbent Prime Minister Prayuth Chan-ocha first came to power in a 2014 coup.
With 99 per cent of the votes counted by early Monday morning, the junior opposition Move Forward Party had eked out a small edge over the favoured Pheu Thai Party, whose leaders earlier in the night conceded they might not finish on top.
The winner of Sunday's vote is not assured the right to form the new government. A joint session of the 500-seat House of Representatives will be held with the 250-member Senate in July to select the new prime minister, a process widely seen as undemocratic because the Senators were appointed by the military rather than elected but vote along with Sunday's winning lawmakers.
Sunday's voter turnout was about 39.5 million, or 75 per cent of registered voters."
The current military associated party came in 5th place.
It will be interesting to see how the military responds as well as the monarch-aligned people.
https://www.cbc.ca/news/world/thailand-election-prayuth-paetongtarn-1.6843216
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Big win for the pro-democracy parties.
Still, it is worrisome because the military may not concede or give back power.
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Part of the problem is that the Thai Senate has 250 members, and all are appointed by the military. The voting was for the 500 member house of representative. The new government must be formed by agreement between the two.
EDIT TO SAY: A party candidate must get more than 1/2 of the 750 seats to form the government. So, technically, a government could be formed without the senate, but would require 376 out of 500 "votes" in the House of Representative, which will be pretty tough.
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Part of the problem is that the Thai Senate has 250 members, and all are appointed by the military. The voting was for the 500 member house of representative. The new government must be formed by agreement between the two.
EDIT TO SAY: A party candidate must get more than 1/2 of the 750 seats to form the government. So, technically, a government could be formed without the senate, but would require 376 out of 500 "votes" in the House of Representative, which will be pretty tough.
@taiwan_girl said in Thailand Elections:
Part of the problem is that the Thai Senate has 250 members, and all are appointed by the military. The voting was for the 500 member house of representative. The new government must be formed by agreement between the two.
EDIT TO SAY: A party candidate must get more than 1/2 of the 750 seats to form the government. So, technically, a government could be formed without the senate, but would require 376 out of 500 "votes" in the House of Representative, which will be pretty tough.Yeesh. And I thought the
Britishour system was complicated. -
So in any probable scenario the military retains power.
“I am fond of pigs. Dogs look up to us. Cats look down on us. Pigs treat us as equals.” ~Winston S. Churchill
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@Mik said in Thailand Elections:
So in any probable scenario the military retains power.
Since the election was so overwhelming against the current government, there is a chance that some of the Senators will back a new government. Most people are hoping so.
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Parliament was just seated. And now the fun begins in choosing the next PM.
https://time.com/6291912/thailand-prime-minister-election-what-could-happen/
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Depending on your side, unfortunate news from the parliament vote today.
https://www.reuters.com/world/asia-pacific/judgement-day-thailands-embattled-pita-parliament-votes-pm-2023-07-13/
"Thailand's Pita Limjaroenrat vowed on Thursday not to quit in his quest to become prime minister, after suffering defeat in a parliamentary vote fraught by abstentions and no-shows as conservative forces closed ranks to keep him at bay.The leader of the progressive Move Forward Party, the surprise winners of the May 14 election, was unopposed in the showdown in the bicameral parliament, but fell 51 votes short of the top job after being thwarted by a Senate appointed by the royalist military after a 2014 coup.
Another vote is expected next week, which 42-year-old Pita can contest if nominated again by his eight-party alliance. To win he needs the votes of more than half of parliament's 749 members.
"I accept it but I'm not giving up," he told reporters.
"I will not surrender and will use this time to garner more support."
The vote was a critical test of Pita's political clout and a gauge of opposition to his party's anti-establishment agenda, which includes removing the military from politics, dismantling business monopolies and changing a law that prescribes long jail terms for insulting the monarchy."
Most of the senators just abstain or didn't show up.
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Interesting things happening in Thailand politics.
A pretty good article with a summary.
Thailand's parliament elected political neophyte Paetongtarn Shinawatra as its youngest prime minister on Friday, only a day after she was thrust into the spotlight amid an unrelenting power struggle between the country's warring elites.
The 37-year-old daughter of divisive political heavyweight Thaksin Shinawatra sailed through a house vote and now faces a baptism of fire, just two days after ally Srettha Thavisin was dismissed as premier by a judiciary central to Thailand's two decades of intermittent turmoil.
and
Paetongtarn has never served in government and the decision to put her in play is a roll of the dice for Pheu Thai and its 75-year-old figurehead Thaksin.
She will immediately face challenges on multiple fronts, with the economy floundering, competition from a rival party growing, and Pheu Thai's popularity dwindling, having yet to deliver on its flagship cash handout programme worth 500 billion baht ($14.25 billion).
