He promised change in Thailand. But will he be allowed to lead?
AS A CANDIDATE, PITA DEVELOPED A REPUTATION FOR BEING A CLEAR ORATOR, WINNING THE PUBLIC OVER WITH HIS SPEECHES AND POLISHED LOOKS
When Pita Limjaroenrat was a student at Harvard in 2008, he shadowed his American classmates who were campaigning at the time for former President Barack Obama.
The experience gave him a window into electoral politics, from phone banks and polling data to knocking on doors and putting campaign flags on front lawns.
Fifteen years later, Pita said he used what he learned in Massachusetts to help his recent campaign in Thailand, where he stunned the country’s political establishment by leading his progressive Move Forward Party to a momentous victory.
For decades, Thai voters had known only two dominant political forces: one led by conservative royalists and militarists and the other by a populist billionaire living in exile.
Supporters saw Pita, 42, as the candidate who represented change and a return to democracy after nine years of military rule that was preceded by a coup. On the stump, he promised to undo the military’s grip on Thai politics and revise a law that criminalises criticism of the monarchy.
But his path to prime minister remains uncertain.
“What I need to do now is to find a road map that bridges that gap between a functioning democracy and half-baked democracy at the very end of nine-year rule by a military coup,” he said in an interview with The New York Times.
In order to take the role, Pita needs to gather enough support in the 500-member House of Representatives to overcome a 250-member, militaryappointed Senate. To be precise, he needs 376 votes. So far, he only has 314.
Already, several senators have said they would not support a candidate who so threatens the status quo.
Now Thais are waiting to see if their choice will be allowed to lead or if he will be blocked from becoming prime minister by prevailing powers, an outcome that could plunge the country into political chaos. Thai generals rewrote the constitution in 2017 so a Senate stacked with military allies could jointly determine the top leader
Conservatives are counting on an Election Commission complaint that has been filed against Pita for failing to disclose that he owned shares of a now-defunct media company that he inherited from his father.
So far, Pita has brushed off the petition to investigate him, saying he had already reported the shares to authorities. He also said he believed there was a group of senators who had “felt their conscience” and understood the consequences of going against the 25 million Thais who voted for change. Only 14 senators have indicated that they would vote for him.
Pita graduated with a joint degree from the Harvard Kennedy School and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology’s Sloan School of Management. From his time in the United States, he learned how to map out a campaign strategy, which he put to use in this election by using data to reach voters in 160 districts.
Most of Pita’s career was in consulting and business, as a managing director of the rice bran oil business that his father started, and then as a senior executive for Grab, the ride-hailing company that acquired Uber in Southeast Asia.
As a candidate, Pita developed a reputation for being a clear orator, winning the public over with his speeches and polished looks.
Pita was drawn to the ideas of the founder of the Future Forward party, Thanathorn Juangroongruangkit, in 2018, and within a few months was asked to join.
He became the leader of Move Forward after Thailand’s Constitutional Court dissolved Future Forward in 2020 and barred its senior executives from politics for 10 years.
If his bid for prime minister is successful, Pita has promised to reset Thailand’s foreign policy, saying the country would “not be part of the Chinese umbrella or the American umbrella,” but will have the ability to determine its own destiny, Pita said.
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