PROTEST LEGACY
The election is the first since major youth-led pro-democracy protests erupted across Bangkok in 2020 with demands to curb the power and spending of Thailand’s king – breaching a long-held taboo on questioning the monarchy.
The demonstrations petered out as COVID-19 curbs were imposed and dozens of leaders were arrested, but their energy has fuelled growing support for the more radical opposition Move Forward Party (MFP).
As he arrived to vote in Bangkok, MFP leader Pita Limjaroenrat, 42, said he expected a “historic turnout”.
“Younger generations these days care about their rights and they will come out to vote,” he told reporters.
While MFP is looking for support from millennial and Gen Z voters – who make up nearly half the 52 million-strong electorate – Pheu Thai’s base is in the rural northeast where voters are still grateful for the welfare policies implemented by Thaksin in the early 2000s.
Prayut also urged voters to turn out in large numbers as he cast his ballot on Sunday.
The former general has made an unashamedly nationalist pitch to older voters, painting himself as the only candidate capable of saving Thailand from chaos and ruin.
But he has lagged badly in the polls, blamed for a sputtering economy and feeble recovery from the pandemic, which battered the kingdom’s crucial tourism industry.
Voter Pakorn Adulpan, 85, said he was impressed by the quality of this year’s contest.
“I am very hopeful because there is strong competition between many talented candidates, compared to the elections in the past,” he told AFP.
Rights groups accuse Prayut of overseeing a major crackdown on basic freedoms, with a huge spike in prosecutions under Thailand’s draconian royal defamation laws.
The country has seen a dozen coups in the last century and has been locked over the last two decades in a rolling cycle of street protests, coups and court orders dissolving political parties.
The Shinawatra family’s bitter tussle with the royalist-military establishment has been at the heart of the drama, with Thaksin ousted in a 2006 coup and his sister Yingluck unseated by Prayut in 2014.
An unclear or disputed result this time could lead to a fresh round of demonstrations and instability.
Adding to the uncertainty, rumours are already swirling that MFP could be dissolved by court order – the same fate that befell its predecessor Future Forward Party after it performed unexpectedly well at the 2019 poll.
Once results come in, attention will turn to the Electoral Commission, the judges and the generals to see what the next steps will be.