Thai Election: Straits Times

See the election results from Bangkok Post.

BANGKOK, STRAITS TIMES (REUTERS, DPA, BLOOMBERG) – A party linked to Thailand’s military led the popular vote after most ballots had been counted from Sunday’s (March 24) general election, giving it a surprise advantage over anti-junta parties hoping to make a comeback as the Election Commission faced multiple accusations of voting irregularities from social media users.  

Unofficial results will be announced on Monday afternoon, so it is still not certain that the Palang Pracharath party backing junta chief Prayut Chan-o-cha will have enough lower house of Parliament seats for him to stay on as prime minister. Pheu Thai, a party linked to the self-exiled former premier Thaksin Shinawatra whose loyalists have won every election since 2001, fell short of expectations that it would outdistance the military’s proxy party. However, it still looked likely to have the largest share of Parliament seats.  

The strong showing by the pro-junta party dismayed voters who had hoped the poll would loosen the grip that traditional elites and the military have long held on power in a country that has one of the highest measures of inequality in the world.  

Many took to social media to voice their suspicions about the results of an election which critics had said was skewed in favour of the military from the outset.  Thai-language hashtags that translated as “Election Commission screw-up” and “cheating the election” were trending at numbers one and three on Twitter in Thailand. Many tweets referred to inconsistencies between the numbers for voter turnout and ballots cast in some parliamentary constituencies, and some questioned the overall turnout of less than 70 per cent, which was much lower than expected.  

A video, that appeared to show a uniformed soldier checking who other soldiers were voting for at a southern-Thailand voting station, was also widely shared online.

“SUSPICIOUS NUMBERS” 

“There is suspicion about extra ballots where the number of ballots was higher than the number of voters in some districts,” said Pheu Thai Party spokesperson Ladawan Wongsriwong. “There is also suspicion about reports of vote-buying.” He said the party’s legal team was considering whether to submit complaints to the Election Commission.  

The Election Commission had planned to announce the unofficial results for the 500-seat lower House of Representatives on Sunday evening but said its announcement had been delayed until Monday, without giving a reason. The commission’s president, Ittiporn Boonpracong, however, admitted there were incidents of vote-buying but did not say who was responsible.

At the 93 per cent vote count, the pro-military Palang Pracharath party overcame expectations to secure the most votes at 7.6 million, followed by the Thaksin-linked Pheu Thai party at 7.2 million, and the progressive Future Forward party at 5.3 million.

The numbers released were for the popular vote, but these did not reflect parliamentary constituency seats won. Pheu Thai could still take the lion’s share of these, which are decided on a first-past-the-post basis, because of its concentrated popularity in the north and north-east of the country. 

Based on a Reuters tally of partial results of the 350 constituency seats contested on Sunday, Pheu Thai was on track to win at least 129 and Palang Pracharath at least 102. Another 150 “party seats” in the lower house will be allocated under a complex proportional representation formula. 

However, Prayut looked in a good position to remain in office thanks to a new, junta-devised electoral system. The lower house and the upper house Senate, whose 250 members are appointed by the junta, will together select the next prime minister. The means Prayut’s party and allies have to win only 126 seats in the lower house, while Pheu Thai and its potential “democratic front” partners would need 376. 

Separately, in a Bloomberg TV interview, tycoon-turned-politician and critic of Thailand’s military government Thanathorn Juangroongruangkit said questions are being asked about the reliability of Sunday’s election, after initial results put the junta leader on course to return to power.

There are reports of many irregularities in the vote, the Future Forward party leader said. The current military administration is likely to form the next coalition government but it’s set to be unstable, Mr Thanathorn said.

“People now start questioning the credibility of this election” as well as the agency in charge of conducting it, 40 year-old Thanathorn said on Monday. His upstart party garnered more than 5 million votes, a stunning debut that puts it on course to be the third-largest in the lower house of parliament.

Thanathorn used a savvy social media campaign aimed in part at younger voters, repeatedly attacking the junta and calling for constitutional changes to allow the full return of democracy. But he has also earned the ire of the generals and could be indicted on Tuesday after officials accused him of spreading false information online. He’s denied the claims and said the authorities are trying to muzzle critics.

Thanathorn, whose family controls one of Thailand’s biggest manufacturers, auto-parts company Thai Summit Group, said the next government is likely to be unstable. “There might be another election, there might be another military intervention,” he said. “Everything is still on the table.”