Thailand’s political deadlock persists over two months after the election with the ongoing conflict between elected parties and military-appointed senators. PM elect Pita has been temporarily suspended from parliament based on a case against him that states he was ineligible to run in the first place while the country remains without a clear leader. On the heels of this, The Move Forward Party (Pita’s Team) has decided to back a candidate from the Pheu Thai Party (part of the MFP coalition) for the prime ministerial position instead. Although Pheu Thai hasn’t officially announced their candidate, property tycoon Srettha Thavisin is considered a strong possibility, while ex PM Thaksin Shinawatra’s daughter, Patongtarn, is also a bonafide candidate. Surveys conducted by the National Institute of Development Administration (Nida Poll) and Suan Dusit Rajabhat University show concerns about the impact of the parliamentary voting procedure and the possibility of an increasingly divided Thai society with many respondents stating that political parties’ obsession with power and lack of respect for the people’s voice will result in conflict Kingdom-wide.

Our Take

You know, I was asking my girlfriend about her take on all of this and she had an interesting response…

She said, “what’s the point of going to vote if the winner doesn’t actually win?”

She has a point. I feel bad for the millions of Thais that cast their ballot all over the country just to see the person they voted for get booted from parliament and deemed ‘ineligible’ to have run in the first place. If that was actually the case, why was Pita’s name ever on any ballot?

I don’t know if he’s the right choice for the country or not. I have no say on that nor any opinion. I choose to stay away from politics in my home country AND here in Thailand.

The point is, the current system is obviously extremely broken and my hope is that it doesn’t take something like the Gwangju Uprising that S. Korea experienced in 1980 for the system to change.