Thaksin ally claims victory in roller coaster Thai election
BANGKOK: A political party linked to exiled tycoon Thaksin Shinawatra claimed victory in Thailand’s election and said it would seek to form a government, challenging a military-backed group that led in initial vote counts.
Pheu Thai led with 137 of 350 constituency seats in an initial tally, followed by the militarybacked Palang Pracharath party with 97 seats, according to the election commission. The count, which didn’t include another 150 party-list seats, showed both major parties would need to form a coalition to take power in the 500-member lower house.
“We’ll try to form a government coalition right away because that’s how people voted,” Sudarat Keyuraphan, Pheu Thai’s candidate for prime minister, told reporters on Monday, adding the army-appointed Senate should follow the wishes of voters. “We stood by our position that we won’t support the continuation of the military regime.”
The comments indicate a showdown is emerging to form a government between pro-democracy forces and Thailand’s royalist and military elites, who have repeatedly sought to prevent Thaksin and his allies from taking power over the past two decades. Previous confrontations have led to instability, gridlock, deadly street protests and coups.
The army-backed Palang Pracharath also said it would seek to form government. It won 7.7 million votes with 94 percent counted with Pheu Thai second at 7.23 million votes, according to unofficial results posted on the election commission’s Facebook page.
The election commission announced the winners of 350 constituencies after several delays in giving seat totals. It said that initial vote counts were accurate even though its computers were attacked. Official results won’t be known until May 9.