Thai political battle - 17th May 2023

Thailand's been ruled for over a decade by the United Thai Nation Party. The party formed a military-backed government which took control of the country by force. However, in the run up to elections on 14th May, the party declined in popularity.

The Move Forward Party (MFP) gained huge support from the younger pro-democratic voting population. They're hungry for change. Party leader Pita Limjaroenrat cast his vote early. He encouraged Thailand's 57 million registered voters to join him at the polls.

Pita Limjaroenrat: "It's not about, you know, the polls and the numbers, but it's really about the turnout of the people. I think if, if I'm hopeful, the only KPI that would determine how hopeful I am, is at the end of the day, the voting turnout. I think that will be a quite strong driver in terms of success of this election and also my party."

Pita's actions resulted in a record high turnout of voters. After 99 percent of the votes were declared, the MFP was the clear leader. Pita's delighted he's beating the military-backed parties.

Pita Limjaroenrat: "At least we'll be passing the objective or the goal of the campaign. We have started with the objective of campaign to have more than three digits of, of new MPs, I think at the minimum we have exceeded that goal. And we are in the process of reaching 160, which is the high end goal that we have set."

But the MFP still faces some challenges before coming into power. As there's no clear majority, it has to form a coalition government with other parties. Also, a new constitution written in 2017 by the previous military government states that the new premier has to be selected by 500 MPs. 250 senate members, who were chosen by the military government also have to vote. Furthermore, the court might end the MFP like it did the Future Forward Party in 2020, delaying final results.