Speaking at a press conference at his party's headquarters, the 42-year-old businessman stressed the people's wish to hand over the country to the Tien Len Party and called on all parties to respect this consensus.
Pita Limjaroenrat, former CEO of a ride-hailing app, is rising in Thai politics. Photo: AP
“It is clear that the Thai people have expressed their will at the polls for the Forward Party to win the recent general election. I would like to announce here that the Forward Party is ready to lead the formation of the future government ,” Mr. Pita said.
About 39.3 million people voted in Sunday's election to elect 500 members of Thailand's lower house of parliament. The Election Commission of Thailand (ECT) reported on Monday that voter turnout was 75.22 percent, the highest in Thailand's political history.
There are about 52 million eligible voters in Sunday's polls, with more than 2 million of them having already cast their ballots in advance on May 7.
Preliminary results released by the ECT on Monday showed the Forward Party in first place with 151 seats. In second and third place were the Pheu Thai Party and the Bhumjaithai Party, winning 141 seats and 70 seats respectively.
Preliminary results of the 2023 Thai election show that the Move Forward Party is temporarily leading with 151 seats (the characters in the photo are candidates for prime minister ). Graphic photo: Reuters (source: Election Commission of Thailand)
According to Mr. Pita, his party has been in contact with political allies about forming Thailand's next government. The coalition includes Pheu Thai, Pracharat, Thai Sang Thai and Seri Ruam Thai.
Together, these three parties would have a total of 308 seats in the 500-member House of Representatives. However, this does not guarantee that Mr. Pita can become Thailand's new Prime Minister.
According to the new election law currently in effect in Thailand and applied for the 2019 election, the election of Thailand's new Prime Minister also includes the participation of 250 members of the Senate elected by the National Council for Peace and Order (NCPO).
This means that if all 250 Thai senators vote for incumbent Prime Minister Prayuth Chan-ocha, he can still beat Mr. Pita to win re-election.
As is known, although Mr. Prayuth's United Thai National Party only won 41 seats in the House of Representatives in the recent election, he can still form an alliance with other pro-military parties to achieve at least 376 seats in the Thai National Assembly (including 250 Senate seats and 500 House of Representatives seats) to successfully reverse the situation.
In the 2019 election, Mr. Prayut, a military general who has been leading the country since a 2014 coup, also won only 116 seats in Thailand's general election, but was still re-elected thanks to the support of pro-military parties and members of the Senate.
Huy Hoang (according to CNA, Reuters)
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