Thailand votes for radical reform
“Thai voters have delivered a stunning verdict in favour of an opposition party that is calling for radical reform,” says Jonathan Head on the BBC. Early results from Sunday’s elections show Pita Limjaroenrat’s progressive Move Forward Party has won 151 of the 500 seats in the lower house, ten seats ahead of the previous frontrunner, Pheu Thai. The result is a “clear repudiation of the two militaryaligned parties of the current governing coalition, which won only 15% of the seats, and prime minister Prayuth Chanocha. Pheu Thai has agreed to join Move Forward and four smaller parties, giving them more than 60% of seats.
Young Thais have rallied behind Move Forward’s reformist platform, which wants to amend strict lèsemajesté laws forbidding the insult of the royal family, says Kocha Olarn on CNN. Proposed changes to the military include abolishing the draft, reducing its budget, making it “more transparent and accountable, and reducing the number of generals”. Pita, 42, said his priorities would be to “demilitarise, demonopolise and decentralise Thailand” in order to “fully democratise” the country and ensure that it is “back in the global arena”.
A “major roadblock” remains, however. A party or coalition needs to win a majority in both the lower house and the senate to elect a prime minister and form a government, but the unelected 250-seat senate is “chosen entirely by the military”. Although another military coup is “unlikely”, a court ruling to disqualify Move Forward on a technicality – as happened to its predecessor Future Forward in 2020 – is possible, says Head.
However, there is still hope, says The Guardian. “The more foul play that unfolds… the likelier it is that street demonstrations return,” as the political scientist Thitinan Pongsudhirak observes. The “old playbook is not working... The elite’s real problem is themselves”.