Move Forward's rising popularity may kill Pheu Thai's landslide victory dream: academic

Asst Prof Dr Pornamarin Promkerd, a lecturer in Humanities and Social Science, reckoned Move Forward’s steady rise in popularity will eat into Pheu Thai’s hope to capture 350 House seats.

In an interview with Nation TV, the professor pointed out that Move Forward is popular among first-time voters and those below the age of 40. There are about 17 million voters in the 18 to 40 age group.

Pornamarin explained that Move Forward Party is fast becoming popular with this group because it has announced clearly that it will not support General Prayut Chan-o-cha or General Prawit Wongsuwan as the next prime minister.

Outgoing PM Prayut and his deputy Prawit are contesting as PM candidates of United Thai Nation and Palang Pracharath parties, respectively.

“Move Forward has been clear from the very first day that it will not support either Prayut or Prawit, both of whom were behind the 2014 coup,” the academic said.

“Voters are now familiar with the party’s slogan: ‘With uncles, there will be no Move Forward, with Move Forward, there will be no uncles’.”

The lecturer said this slogan has become a hit among voters who want to see democracy returning to the country.

He also noted that Move Forward’s rising popularity thanks to its clear stance against the coup makers prompted Pheu Thai to also announce it would not form a coalition with Prawit’s party. Pheu Thai had not clarified this in the beginning and rumours linking it to Prawit began doing the rounds.

“The lack of a clear stance from the beginning put Pheu Thai at a disadvantage in its efforts to win support,” Pornamarin said.

The academic added that another thing in Move Forward’s favour is its uniquely outstanding policies, like ending business monopolies, reforming the military, ending mandatory conscription, amending the Constitution as well as the lese majeste law.

Pornamarin also said Move Forward has been making good use of social networks to capture the hearts of young voters.

“The party has won the ‘air war’. No other party can defeat it in the social media frontline,” the academic added.

He said Move Forward’s messages via social networks have reached far and wide, including primary school children who will try to convince their parents to vote for the party.

All in all, he said, Move Forward can expect to win at least 80 or even 100 seats in the House of Representatives if it manages to maintain this high level of popularity for the next 12 days before the country goes to vote on May 14.

He added that Move Forward can be expected to win seats in most provinces’ first constituencies or main towns.

In conclusion, he said, Pheu Thai will win most House seats but will fail from achieving a landslide.