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Thailand’s vote is viewed as a contest between junta leader Prime Minister Prayuth Chan-ocha – who wants to stay on as the elected leader – and a “democratic front” of anti-junta parties.
Figures from Thailand’s Election Commission show a military-backed party has taken the lead in the country’s first election since a 2014 coup.
With 89 percent of votes counted, the Palang Pracharat party has 7 million votes and Pheu Thai has 6.6 million.
A new party, Future Forward, which became popular with young voters, has scooped up nearly 4.8 million votes.
The vote counts suggest coup leader and Prime Minister Prayuth Chan-ocha has a chance of staying in power by forming a coalition government with the help of a 250-member junta-appointed Senate.
Prayuth, is 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 the military.
About 51 million Thais are eligible to vote. Leaders of political parties opposed to military rule have urged a high turnout as the only way to derail Prayuth’s plans.
The most prominent party of a “democratic front” of anti-junta parties front is Pheu Thai, led by loyalists to exiled former premier Thaksin Shinawatra.
The election is the latest chapter in a nearly two-decade struggle between conservative forces including the military and the political machine of Thaksin, a tycoon who upended tradition-bound Thailand’s politics with a populist political revolution.
Thaksin was ousted in a 2006 military coup and now lives in exile abroad to avoid a prison term, but parties allied with him have every election since 2001.
Political parties and their main leaders held their final major rallies on Friday evening in Bangkok.
Sudarat Keyuraphan, leader of the Pheu Thai, said it would fight to overcome constitutional hurdles erected against it by Prayuth’s regime.
“In 2014, they took power with the barrel of a gun, by a coup,” she said. “In 2019, they are trying to take away the people’s power again through crooked regulations under the constitution.”
Concerns about a slowing economy under Prayuth’s rule have been an issue in the campaign. Sudarat told the crowd, “Every time we come back, the economy improves, right?”
Prayuth, dressed in a white button-down shirt with rolled-up sleeves, pumped his fist into the air as he took the stage at a rally for the military-backed Palang Pracharath party.
“I will protect this country for our future generations,” he said. “Who will join me?”
When it seized power in 2014, the military said it was to end political unrest that had periodically turned violent and disrupted daily life and the economy. The claim has been a major selling point for Prayuth.
A third faction, led by the anti-Thaksin Democrat Party, argues it can form a government that is neutral.
Its leader Abhisit Vejjajiva told voters at a rally they did not have to choose between “dictatorship” and “corruption”, referring respectively to Prayuth and Thaksin, who fled to avoid corruption charges in 2008.
“Time’s up for corruption,” said Abhisit, who could hold the key to power after what is expected to be an inconclusive poll that triggers intense horse-trading among parties to form a government. [Click link below to read more in source website]
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Featured photo by Athit Perawongmetha / Reuters
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