Prayut shrugs off Move Forward’s surging popularity as he woos voters
Unfazed by Move Forward Party’s rising popularity, Prime Minister General Prayut Chan-o-cha promised voters he will continue working hard if his United Thai Nation Party (UTNP) was elected on May 14.
While campaigning for votes at Bangkok’s Rama VIII Bridge on Friday, Prayut reminded potential voters that his government had helped Thailand overcome the Covid-19 crisis over the past three years.
“Everything cannot return to normal in one day. All development projects take time, but they need to be done for the sake of all Thais,” said Prayut, who is UTNP’s top PM candidate. “The party and I will pick up where I left off and we will not stop until we overcome all crises together.”
Comparing his party to the Rama VIII Bridge, which has helped people cross the Chao Phraya River since 2002, he said UTNP will also help Thailand march to a better future and overcome all conflicts and inequality.
“Some say Thailand is like a sick elephant. We must work together to make Thailand a war elephant again,” he said.
When asked by the press about his party’s strategy to combat Move Forward’s rising popularity, Prayut only said: “UTNP will probably consider adjusting the campaign strategy after this, but polls are just polls.”
Meanwhile, Nation Poll reported the results of its second opinion poll covering 114,457 respondents on Friday.
Conducted from April 24 to May 3, the poll revealed that the Move Forward Party had risen to the second place as voters’ preferred choice for both constituency and party-list elections.
The first poll, conducted from April 7 to 12, had seen the party in third place after Pheu Thai and “still undecided” choices.
Move Forward is trailing behind Pheu Thai by a fairly small margin – 28.03% vs 38.48% for the constituency and 29.18% vs 39.86% for party list MPs, respectively. The ratios of undecided voters in both constituency and party-list elections have dropped to 8.67% and 7.09%, respectively.
UTNP, meanwhile, was in fourth place in the constituency election and third place in the party-list election.
As for the preferred PM choice, Move Forward’s Pita Limjaroenrat moved up to the top of the list from third place in the previous survey with a score of 29.37%. Pheu Thai’s Paetongtarn Shinawatra and Srettha Thavisin came in second and third respectively with 27.55% and 13.28%. Prayut trailed behind in the fourth place with 8.85%.
