Bangkok, May 14 Thailand votes this Sunday in a general election in which the pro-democratic opposition starts as the clear favorite and could wrest the government from the prime minister, General Prayut Chan-ocha, after a decade in power.
The polling stations opened their doors at 8:00 a.m. local time (01:00 GMT) and, by half a day, the three main candidates for the post of prime minister had already cast their votes in a normal environment.
The current Thai president, who led the 2014 coup and revalidated his position in the 2019 elections, voted an hour after the start of voting for an election in which he aspires to re-election for the conservative United Thai Nation.
The leader of the reformist Move Forward party, Pita Limjaroenrat and second in the polls, voted in the middle of the morning.
Shortly after noon, political neophyte Paetongtarn Shinawatra, daughter of exiled oligarch Taksin Shinawatra and whose opposition Pheu Thai party is the clear favorite, cast her ballot at a school in Bangkok’s central Ram Indra area, where she stopped to greet and take photos with supporters.
During the first hours of voting there have been no major incidents on a day that “at the moment is calm, without serious problems apart from some queues during rush hour,” prosecutor Kam, who works at a polling station in the Ekkamai area.
Police agents supervised the polling stations to guarantee the “normality” of the day and avoid incidents such as vote buying, which is why at least one person was arrested in Bangkok this morning, a policeman told EFE.
The opposition starts as the clear favorite in these elections, considered the most important in recent decades after a government for almost 10 years linked to the military, and together, Pheu Thai and Move Forward have more than 70% of the support, according to all surveys.
“I am here voting today because we have not seen a change, we have not had democracy for nine years. And we as citizens have a fundamental role in deciding the course of the country,” said the driver Osm.
Thais will have to choose their representatives to occupy the 500 seats in the House of Representatives, of which 400 will be elected by constituency and another 100 by party list.
The election of the prime minister, however, will be carried out through a joint vote in Parliament, where in addition to the 500 deputies of the Lower House out of the elections, the 250 members of the Senate, chosen by the extinct military junta, will also vote. . EFE
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