No impact on Prayut’s popularity by decision to stay out of party-list election: pollster

Asst Prof Suvicha Paoaree, director of the National Institute of Development Administration’s Nida Poll Centre, said that he did not think Prayut’s new party, United Thai Nation, would be adversely affected by his decision.

“I see no impact on General Prayut’s supporters. Popularity and loyalty are a matter of personal preference,” he said.

Prayut announced recently that he would be the first prime ministerial candidate of the United Thai Nation at the upcoming election, while the party’s leader Pirapan Salirathavibhaga would be its second PM candidate.

In the March 2019 election, Prayut was the sole PM candidate of the now-ruling party, Palang Pracharath. However, he defected in January to join the United Thai Nation, which was newly registered with the Election Commission in March last year.

Nida Poll’s Suvicha said on Thursday that he thought Prayut’s decision came after two expected PM candidates of the rival Pheu Thai Party – Paetongtarn Shinawatra and Srettha Thavisin – reportedly would not contest under the party-list electoral system.

“The rules in the Constitution allow this,” the academic said.
He pointed out that recent opinion surveys conducted by Nida Poll found that Prayut’s personal popularity was ahead of his party’s popularity by about 30%.

“What the United Thai Nation needs to do is to make voters aware that General Prayut is now with the party. This way, it will get more voter support,” Suvicha said.

He also said that Pheu Thai, the core opposition party, has been at the forefront among political parties in recent surveys conducted by Nida Poll. However, the party’s big challenge was to maintain such popularity until election day.

“I believe that Pheu Thai will face obstacles and pressure that may cause its support votes to be reduced,” Suvicha said.

He expected Pheu Thai to win about 230-235 MP seats in the upcoming election, down from the current estimate of 240-260.