From Al Jazeera:
The main candidate of Thailand’s Palang Pracharat Party has said that the people have moved on from the past of former Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra and are concerned with their day-to-day lives. Thaksin’s Pheu Thai Party, which has won every election since 2001, is drawing support from those who have said they want democracy and an end to military rule.
The odds seem to favour the Pheu Thai Party in the popular vote on Sunday, but the military will still hand-pick 250 seats in the upper house of Parliament, which may make it hard for the Pheu Thai to form a government.
Earlier, from Voice of America:
Nearly 52 million Thais are eligible to vote, with some 75 percent expected to go to the polls, according to Aim Sinpeng, an assistant professor in the Department of Government & International Relations at the University of Sydney, who said, “Turnout is usually high in Thailand.”
Reflecting widespread interest in the general election despite limits on dissent, of the 2.6 million people who registered for early voting on March 17, 86.98 per cent of them turned up, according to Thai PBS.
The military government of Prime Minister Prayut Chan-o-cha had repeatedly delayed the general election, first tentatively set for 2015, which means many people have expectations, based on a buildup OF “wants, and aspirations, and hopes for themselves and the society, which aren’t being realized … under this kind of authoritarian culture, which the military government has created,” said Chris Baker, a historian who co-authored “A History of Thailand” with Pasuk Phongpaichit.
Leave a Reply