“A new page of Thailand politics?”

This week we're going to focus on the 2023 general election in Thailand.

This general election is the election that would go into history books in Thailand politics because it could have the possibility that won’t be a pro-military government since 2014. The general election on the lower house is already been held on May 14th, and it is beyond expected that the party that has the most seat is not the previous biggest opposition party Pheu Thai Party (141 seats) but the Move Forward Party (152 seats) that’s led by Pita Limjaroenrat.

Last Friday, ANFREL issued a workshop to give us a preliminary introduction to this election and presented the perspective of what the organization is observing during the election period. When we discuss the process of observing this elections, ANFREL believes that this general election compares to the previous 2019 elections is more open and transparent, but we still have to keep in mind that no election is perfect, Thailand’s political system and rules still have a long way to go to adjust and amend on.

This Monday, we pay a visit to Thammasat University to join Dr. Altaf for a session, to discuss this election from a different angle through a social structure viewpoint and domestic perspective, to rethink what impacts or dilemmas they have throughout society. We have to rethink whether is the systems that influence this election? Or does the social structure change people’s thoughts through the conversation in life?

Today, July 13th, 2023 is the day that Thailand’s parliament voted for who gets the seat as Prime Minister. Although the Move Forward party is the biggest majority in the lower house and has formed an alliance to support Pita Limjaroenrat. But let’s keep in mind that becoming Prime Minister, the vote does not only come from the representative of 500 seats at the lower house but also an additional 250 from the Senate. The result of today’s vote as Pita Limjaroenrat as PM was (For:324, Against:182, and Abstain:199). So as the vote does not exceed 376, this lead to the parliament having no result on who is the Prime Minister yet, they’ll likely have a second vote on July 19th, still looking forward to whether the second vote will deliver the final result or not.