‘Fed up’ voters ready to transform Thai politics: veteran politician
The upcoming election will produce a “landslide change” in Thai politics as voters in every region of the country are eager for a political transformation, veteran politician Wan Muhammad Noor Matha said on Saturday.
“I have been in politics for over 40 years and I have never seen people so excited to see changes in government leaders like this time,” Wan Noor said.
Voters are “fed up” from years of suffering, said the former House speaker who leads the opposition Prachachat Party.
“I believe there will certainly be a landslide change,” he said.
General Prayut Chan-o-cha has served as prime minister since 2014, months after he overthrew an elected government in a military coup. The power seizure came after months of political chaos and violence.
The next coalition government will be formed within a week after the two parliamentary chambers convene to select the next prime minister, Wan Noor predicted.
The Constitution empowers senators to join MPs in selecting a prime minister, who needs majority support from both Houses to get the top seat.
The Prachachat leader made the predictions while addressing a meeting of the party’s candidates at a Bangkok hotel ahead of the start of candidacy registration on Monday.
Prachachat will contest 19 constituencies, mainly in the southern provinces, and will nominate 77 candidates for the party-list election, Wan Noor said.
He said he was confident his party would win in every constituency it runs in due to strong voter support.
In the March 2019 election, Prachachat won six MP seats from constituencies and one from the party-list system. Its main support base is in the Muslim-majority southern border provinces.
Wan Noor, who is Muslim, is the party’s only party-list MP.
After the election, his party will join a coalition government formed by parties that are “trusted by the people and are able to amend the Constitution in a way that makes it belong to the people”, he said.
Meanwhile, former prime minister and Democrat ex-leader Abhisit Vejjajiva on Saturday accompanied the party’s election candidate Watchara Phetthong at a campaign event in Bangkok’s Nong Khaem district.
Abhisit was greeted by a huge number of supporters, some of whom asked to have their photos taken with him.
When asked if the Democrats are poised for a comeback in Bangkok, Abhisit said that was the party's target. “Our duty is to do the utmost,” he said.
The Democrat Party, the country’s oldest, suffered a historic loss in the March 2019 election when it failed to win a single of the 30 MP seats up for grabs in the capital, which previously was one of its strongholds.
