Opposition claims poll issues
A military-backed party has taken the lead in Thailand’s first election since a 2014 coup, preliminary results showed yesterday, suggesting junta leader and Prime Minister Prayuth Chanocha could stay in power.
With 92 per cent of votes counted, the Palang Pracharat party was first with 7.5 million votes, according to the country’s Election Commission. Its vote total falls short of the numbers required for an outright majority in parliament. Pheu Thai, which was the governing party ousted by the coup, was next with 7 million votes.
The country likely faces several weeks of haggling among political parties before a potentially unstable coalition government is formed. Thais voted for a 500-member parliament, which along with a 250-member juntaappointed Senate will decide the next prime minister.
A new party, Future Forward, which was anti-junta and became popular with young voters, had scooped up nearly 5.2 million votes. But voters deserted the Democrat Party, the country’s oldest political party, and its leader, former Prime Minister Abhisit Vejjajiva, resigned.
Nearly 6 per cent of votes were disqualified, according to the Election Commission, which said it would provide an update on counting this week.
Pheu Thai’s secretary general, Phumtham Wechayachai, said the party was waiting for official results but believes there were irregularities. The party wants to inspect disqualified and spoiled ballots, he said.
‘‘Even the reported numbers from the Election Commission and each media outlet are different.
‘‘We have our own number too. The Election Commission report even paused for a while. It will be clearer once the official result is announced,’’ Phumtham said.
The election was the latest chapter in a nearly two-decade struggle between conservative forces including the military and the political machine of Thaksin Shinawatra, a tycoon who upended tradition-bound Thailand’s politics with a populist political revolution.
Thaksin was ousted as prime minister in a 2006 military coup and now lives in exile abroad to avoid a prison term, but parties allied with him have won every election since 2001.
His sister, Yingluck Shinawatra, who led the Pheu Thai government that was ousted in 2014, also fled the country after what supporters said was a politically motivated prosecution.
The blunt-speaking Prayuth, who as army chief led the 2014 coup, was hoping to extend his hold on power after engineering a new political system that aims to stifle the influence of big political parties not aligned with Palang Pracharat and the military.
‘‘What is now interesting is how Palang Pracharat can bring together a coalition,’’ said Kevin Hewison, a Thai politics expert who is a University of North Carolina emeritus professor.
‘‘It looks like it needs at least two other parties but will probably cobble together more than that in the hope of creating a more stable government,’’ he said.
Thailand’s powerful King Maha Vajiralongkorn had issued a statement on the eve of the election that said the role of leaders is to stop ‘‘bad people’’ from gaining power and causing chaos. It was also broadcast on Thai television stations minutes before voting started.
Invoking a speech by his father, the previous Thai king who died in 2016 after reigning for seven decades, Vajiralongkorn said not all citizens can be transformed into good people, so leaders must be given support in ruling to create a peaceful nation.
He urged government officials, soldiers and civil servants to look after national security.