Countdown to Thailand’s next election
Prime Minister Prayut Chan-o-cha said on February 21 that he would dissolve the House of Representatives in March and the next general election would be held on May 7, which had been tentatively scheduled by the Election Commission.
The PM is expected to dissolve the Lower House sometime between March 7-22, before its four-year term ends on March 23.
The Constitution requires that the Election Commission set the election date within five days after a decree on House dissolution is issued. The election date must be at least 45 days and no later than 60 days after the House dissolution.
Based on the assumption that the voting date is May 7, the timeline for the electoral process is:
- April 3-7: Registration of candidates
- April 11: Deadline for the designation of polling stations and the final list of eligible voters
- April 14: Announcement of the final list of election candidates
- April 16: Deadline for the appointment of officials at voting stations
- April 26: Deadline for changes in polling stations and revisions of the eligible voter list
- April 30: Advance voting and absentee voting
- May 1-6: Eligible voters who expect not to cast ballots can report why they will be unable to vote
- May 1: Deadline for filing petitions on issues regarding election candidacy rights
- May 3: Deadline for the Supreme Court to consider cases on candidacy rights stemming from applications being denied by local election directors
- May 6: Deadline for local election directors to seek Supreme Court disqualification of registered election candidates found to be unqualified or prohibited from running for other reasons
- May 7: General election
- May 8-14: Deadline for voters to file a report explaining their failure to cast ballots. (Eligible voters who do not cast ballots can lose certain electoral and political rights until they exercise their voting rights in the next election.)
