Thai parties make final poll push as army chief says no coup

Asia
By Editor_1
Paetongtarn Shinawatra, one of the opposition Pheu Thai Party's three nominees to become the next prime minister, talks to reporters at Thammasat University's indoor gymnasium in Pathum Thani province, north of Bangkok, Thailand, on March 17, 2023. Thailand votes Sunday (May 14) in an election many see as an opportunity to break free from military-dominated governments that have been in power for most of the nation's modern history -Sakchai Lalit/AP
By Montira Rungjirajittranon and Alexis Hontang

BANGKOK – Thai political parties made a last raucous push for votes at campaign rallies Friday (12) ahead of an election that could see a youth-energized opposition kick out the military-backed government.

Paetongarn Shinawatra, the 36-year-old leader of the main opposition Pheu Thai party, was given a rock star welcome as she returned to the campaign trail for the first time since giving birth less than two weeks ago.

Voters are predicted to deliver a heavy defeat to the government of former army chief and coup leader Prime Minister Prayut Chan-O-Cha, with Pheu Thai and the rival opposition Move Forward Party leading the final polls.

But in a kingdom that has seen a dozen coups in the past century, there are fears the military could seek to cling on to power – despite assurances from the current army chief there would be no military intervention this time.

Paetongtarn, the daughter of billionaire ex-premier Thaksin Shinawatra – himself ousted in a coup – arrived to an electric atmosphere at Bangkok’s huge Impact arena.

About 10,000 supporters clad in Pheu Thai’s signature vivid scarlet colours cheered and whooped as Paetongtarn made her way to the stage.

“Pheu Thai is the party that talks the talk and walks the walk and that’s why I’m going to vote for them this time,” supporter Potjanee Chawattachai told AFP.

Sunday’s (14) election is a clash between the opposition, fired up by the youth-led pro-democracy street protest movement of 2020, and the older conservative royalist-military establishment embodied by Prayut.

Pheu Thai, which draws on a deep well of support from rural voters in the northeast, is well ahead in the polls, but winning most seats in the lower house is no guarantee of taking power.

The prime minister will be chosen by the 500 elected MPs and 250-strong senate – whose members were appointed by Prayut’s junta, stacking the deck in favour of army-linked parties.

In 2019’s controversial election, Prayut rode senate support to become prime minister at the head of a complex multi-party coalition.

The election is the first since the 2020 protests rocked the kingdom with unprecedented calls for reforms to the powers of ultra-wealthy King Maha Vajiralongkorn.

Move Forward appears to have harnessed much of the energy of the youth-led protest movement, which voiced deep disaffection with the old political system.

Prayut, 69, has billed himself as the man with the experience needed to steer the country through turbulent times.

In keeping with the conservative, nationalist tone of his campaign, his closing rally was more sober than Pheu Thai’s, with supporters decked out in red, white and blue — the colours of the party and the Thai flag.

“Thailand should change gradually, not drastically,” 61-year-old housewife Nittaya Boonmalert told AFP.

“The opposition parties’ policies are too extreme.”

Critics say Prayut has overseen economic stagnation and a massive spike in the use of draconian royal defamation laws.

More than 200 people have been charged with insulting the monarchy in the wake of the 2020 protests.

Rights groups accuse Prayut’s military-backed government of abusing the laws to crack down on dissent.

An unclear or disputed election result could lead to a fresh round of demonstrations and instability, further hampering the tourism-dependent country’s already sluggish recovery from the COVID-19 pandemic.

Thailand over the last two decades has been locked in a cycle of street protests, coups and court orders dissolving political parties.

Army chief General Narongpan Jitkaewthae sought to allay fears of a new putsch on Thursday (11), saying there would be no return to military rule and that the coups of the past were “very negative”.

“There shouldn’t be (a coup) anymore. For me, this word should be deleted from the dictionary,” he said.

The Shinawatra family’s bitter tussle with the royalist-military establishment has been at the centre of Thailand’s rolling political drama.

Thaksin was removed in a 2006 coup, and his sister Yingluck Shinawatra by Prayut’s putsch in 2014, and some analysts are sceptical that the military will release its grip on power now.

“I’m a realist. So, I’m very pessimistic about the electoral result being respected by the elite,” Napisa Waitoolkiat, a political analyst at Naresuan University, told AFP.

-Agence France-Presse

 

 

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