Thai Election: Pro-Army Party Wins Most Votes
Thailand’s first election in eight years threw up inconclusive results as a pro-military party trying to get Prime Minister Prayut Chano-cha to return as premier has won the most votes, but many unofficial sources show the former ruling Pheu Thai party bagging the most constituency seats.
The Election Commission had so far on Sunday not disclosed the number of constituency seats won by each party among the 350 wards contested.
With 93 per cent of overall votes counted, the Election Commission reported the pro-military party Palang Pracharath was leading with 7.59 million votes.
Trailing with 7.12 million votes was Pheu Thai, a party linked to exiled former Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra, whose loyalists have won every election since 2001.
The numbers were for the popular vote, but these did not reflect parliamentary constituency seats that would ultimately be won. Pheu Thai could still win the lion’s share of these because of its concentrated popularity in the north and northeast of the country.
But state broadcaster MCOT, using preliminary tallies, showed that Pheu Thai had performed the best at the constituency level, winning 124 seats. It was trailed by Palang Pracharath with 95 seats, followed by Bhumjaithai Party with 39 seats. Former premier Abhisit Vejjajiva on Sunday stepped down as leader of the Democrat Party after its poor showing, with only 33 seats based on figures from MCOT.