The Thai Chana Party was officially inaugurated on Thursday and nominated MR Chatu Mongol Sonakul as its only prime ministerial candidate.
Jakkraphong Chuenduang, the party leader, joined other members in holding a shrine instalment ceremony at the party’s new operations centre on Pradiphat Road before releasing their campaign cars around Bangkok.
Registered in 2021, the party is sending 49 of its members to contest the upcoming election. Ten have registered as constituency MPs, with the other 39 signed up as party-list MPs.
Mr Jakkraphong said MR Chatu Mongol was selected as their PM candidate because of his background as a financier and marketeer. That is expected to help the country with its financial and trading development, he added.
Regarding its campaign policies, Mr Jakkraphong said the party will not prioritise populism.
Many of its policies aim to improve people’s lives, including those related to public health and resolving economic problems, through a campaign that “wins people’s hearts and beats poverty”, he said.
Establishing a ministry for SMEs is one of the highlights of its campaign pledges, Mr Jakkraphong said.
Other pledges focus on improving administrative structures, such as trimming the number of cabinet members from 35 to 20 and transitioning the national police system to more of a locally operated system.
Asked why the party was inaugurated two weeks before the May 14 general election, Mr Jakkraphong said it wants to use its policies to win over eligible voters who were still undecided, which polls show could be as much of 32.6% of the electorate. He said the party’s policies should win the hearts and minds of many middle-aged voters as they aim to boost their finances.