Thailand’s caretaker premier Anutin Charnvirakul is set to lead coalition talks after his conservative Bhumjaithai Party secured a stunning election victory, though it fell short of a parliamentary majority.
BANGKOK: Thailand’s caretaker premier Anutin Charnvirakul is preparing for coalition talks after his conservative Bhumjaithai Party secured a stunning election victory.
The party was forecast to have won almost 200 seats in Sunday’s vote, well ahead of others but short of an outright majority in the 500-member lower house.
The progressive People’s Party trailed at a little above 100 seats. Jailed former prime minister Thaksin Shinawatra’s Pheu Thai party came in third and is seen as a likely coalition partner for Anutin.
The two were allies until Bhumjaithai pulled out over a scandal linked to the Cambodia border dispute. Thaksin is serving a one-year prison sentence for corruption in office, but many observers expect him to be released earlier than scheduled alongside a political agreement.
Anutin, who took office in September, declined to be drawn on potential coalition talks. “We will wait until its more clear, and every party has to meet their executive board to discuss the position,” he said.
Political analyst Napon Jatusripitak expected Bhumjaithai to “move quickly” to form a government. “Given the seat distribution, Bhumjaithai is likely to lead a government in which its influence predominates,” he said.
The next administration will need to tackle anaemic economic growth and manage fallout from multibillion-dollar cyberscam networks. Perhaps most pressing is the Cambodia dispute, which erupted into open fighting in July and December, killing scores and displacing around a million people.
The conflict was top of mind for many voters, with analysts saying a wave of nationalism propelled Anutin to victory. “Thailand will move like it moved in the past three months. We will see nationalism, a strong position on Cambodia and economic policies. Nothing changes,” said Virot Ali, a politics lecturer at Thammasat University.
Soon after becoming premier, Anutin authorised the armed forces to take whatever action they saw fit on the border. Thailand’s military took control of several disputed areas in the latest fighting in December, and a fragile ceasefire remains in place.
“Once I became prime minister, everything we once lost, it has come back to be ours again,” Anutin said at a rally in the Sisaket border province last week. Paul Chambers, an associate senior fellow at ISEAS-Yusof Ishak Institute, cautioned that Anutin’s victory “will allow the military to become even more autonomous of civilian control”.
Napon pointed out that Bhumjaithai’s victory was “the first time in a very long while that a conservative party has emerged with the largest number of seats”. “In that sense, the result may have resolved a recurring dilemma in Thai politics,” he added.
Around 60% of voters were projected to have backed constitutional reform in principle in a referendum on Sunday. Bhumjaithai will now be in a position to guide the reform process, and its conservative instincts make radical change less likely.
