Voting system ‘may hurt new party’
Democrats tell Future Forward to buckle up
“Young blood” aspirants seeking to form a new political party have a long way to go before they gain a foothold in politics, political sources say.
It will be tough for emerging parties to rival long-established ones that dominate the political landscape and still keep a tight hold on their support bases, according to the sources.
The phrase “young blood” politicians is understood to refer to the group led by Thanathorn Juangroongruangkit, the scion of Thailand’s biggest auto parts group who has launched a new party catering to younger voters.
The 39-year-old executive vice president of the Thai Summit Group applied to register the Anakhot Mai or Future Forward Party at the Office of the Election Commission on Thursday.
The first official policy of the new party is that it will oppose an “outsider prime minister” in the coming election.
His co-founder is 38-year-old Piyabutr Saengkanokkul, a law lecturer at Thammasat University and noted member of the Nitirat group, whose members include progressive legal specialists.
Mr Thanathorn is a nephew of former transport minister Suriya Juangroongruangkit, a former member of the defunct Thai Rak Thai Party, which became the People’s Power Party before transforming into the current Pheu Thai Party.
Democrat Party deputy leader Nipit Intarasombat said yesterday there is scant chance the new party will thrive under the new voting system.
Under the new proportional representation system, a constituency vote is used to determine the overall number of seats, including party-list seats, which parties will receive through a single-ballot voting method.
A key element is that the ballots cast for losing constituency candidates will not be discarded as they were in elections past; they are to be redistributed and used in allocating seats in the party-list system.
In light of this, the first hurdle facing the Future Forward Party is that it must try to find candidates to run in constituencies. But as it happens, former MPs of several existing parties have still been actively maintaining contact with their constituents during the past several years under the established parties’ banners.
“If the Future Forward Party wants to recruit new stars to compete [in the election], they have a great deal of homework to do,” Mr Nipit said.
In reality, the two major parties, Pheu Thai and the Democrats, will fight hard against each other.
There will be few seats left for small parties, particularly in the South, which is the stronghold of the Democrats and in the Northeast, which is the support base of Pheu Thai.
“They said they will fight against a major party like the Democrats, not Pheu Thai. This means they may still be under the shadow of Pheu Thai,” Mr Nipit said.
Wanwichit Boonprong, a political scientist at Rangsit University, said Future Forward seeks to court middle-class voters in major cities, though it lacks the experience to challenge veteran politicians.
The new party’s strength is that it easily identifies with diverse groups of younger voters who are skilled in using social media, Mr Wanwichit said.
He said the founders of Future Forward must work hard to convince the public that the new party has no affiliations with Pheu Thai.
“Although Mr Thanathorn and Mr Piyabutr are trying to distance themselves from Pheu Thai, many people are still not convinced,’’ Mr Wanwichit said.
During the Pheu Thai-led administration, the pair never stepped forward to criticise any of its policies that the people were unhappy with, Mr Wanwichit noted.
He added that it will be easier for Future Forward to compete with the Democrats for votes than it will with Pheu Thai.
Sombat Thamrongthanyawong, rector of Walailak University, said if Future Forward wants to succeed in the coming election, it needs to approach veteran politicians with strong political support bases to join the new party.
When former prime minister Thaksin Shinawatra set up Thai Rak Thai, he did not think of approaching veteran politicians at the time but he eventually had to, Mr Sombat said.
This still applies to the current circumstances, where new emerging parties have little time to prepare for the election, Mr Sombat said.
On his Facebook page, Watana Muangsook, a key Pheu Thai figure, welcomed Future Forward, saying the party’s very emergence reflects some of the negative aspects of the current regime, which is trying to impose too many restrictions on new parties.