Thailand Election: Forward Party Wins General Election

Thailand's March Forward Party (MFP) prime ministerial candidate Pita Limjaroenrat in Bangkok, May 12.

At noon on May 15, the Election Commission of Thailand (EC) completed the vote counting and announced the victory of the March Forward Party (MFP) in the general election held on May 14.

EC Chairman Ittiporn Boonpracong said the MFP won a total of 152 seats in the House of Representatives (including 113 constituency seats and 39 party-list seats).

The Pheu Thai Party came in second with 141 seats (112 and 29 seats respectively).

The Thai Pride Party (Bhumjaithai) came in third with 70 seats (67 constituency seats and 3 party-list seats). Meanwhile, the People's State Power Party (PPRP) came in second with a total of 40 seats.

Prime Minister Prayut Chan-o-cha's United Thai National Party (UTN) ranked fifth with 23 constituency seats and 13 party-list seats.

Mr. Ittiporn said voter turnout reached 75.22%, higher than the record 75.03% in the 2011 election.

After the preliminary election results were announced, MFP leader Pita Limjaroenrat said he would seek to build a six-party coalition that would include the Pheu Thai Party.

The 42-year-old leader said he had contacted Paetongtarn Shinawatra, one of the Pheu Thai Party's prime ministerial candidates, to invite her to join a coalition to form a new government .

The MFP-Petition Thai coalition is expected to win 292 seats and a majority in the House of Representatives. However, to form a government, the coalition needs at least 376 votes in the election for prime minister, which involves both houses of parliament , including the 250-member Senate appointed by the military.

In a related development, Mr. Jurin Laksanawisit resigned as leader of the Democrat Party, the oldest political party in Thailand, to take responsibility for the party's poor performance in the general election on May 14.

In his Line message to Democrat Party members late on May 14, Mr. Jurin congratulated the party's candidates on winning seats and thanked former party leaders Chuan Leekpai and Abhisit Vejjajiva, members of the executive committee and loyal party members for their support.

He said he had submitted his resignation as party leader, adding that he would stay with the party in any capacity.

Four years after the shock of failing to win any seats in the capital Bangkok, which holds the most parliamentary seats in the country, in the 2019 election, forcing then-party leader Abhisit Vejjajiva to resign, the Democrat Party repeated this poor performance by continuing to lose in the capital in this year's election./.

According to VNA

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