Democrats fielding high-calibre candidates, Jurin says in pep talk to election contenders

While presiding over a religious ceremony at the party’s headquarters, Jurin told the 100 party-list Democrat candidates in attendance that they should help “erase all the ill will and lead the Democrats to success” in the upcoming national vote.

He said the party was ready to contest the election in terms of personnel and policy platforms. “We have a strong political stance, experience, achievements and integrity. Those are what our country is longing for.”

Jurin, a deputy prime minister and commerce minister in the outgoing government, is expected to lead 33 Democrat candidates set to contest in Bangkok to register their candidacy on Monday (April 3) and the 100 party-list candidates on Tuesday (April 4).

He said on Friday that the Democrats’ party-list is full of candidates of high quality and calibre. They include three former party leaders, 15 former government ministers, and 29 former MPs. As many as 75 of the candidates graduated with a master’s degree or a doctorate, he said, adding that there were also 17 women and the differently abled among the party-list candidates.

While addressing the candidates, he asked them to do their utmost in the election campaigning to help bring victory to the party at the election. He said the Democrats’ nationwide campaign would be divided into three “main armies” led by former party leaders, the current secretary-general, and himself.

The Democrat, Thailand’s oldest political party which will turn 77 on April 6, has suffered from major setbacks in recent years in one of the party’s most difficult times in its long history. Many key party figures and incumbent MPs have left to join other parties to contest the election in a situation described as “significant bleeding” by political observers.