Thai opposition leaders yesterday toured Bangkok in open-top vehicles in a final-day bid to woo voters, urging them to turn out in force to oust the military-backed government.
The kingdom goes to the polls today with voters tipped to issue a damning verdict on former coup leader Thai Prime Minister Prayuth Chan-ocha after nearly a decade in power.
However, in a country where coups and court rulings have often overturned election results, there are fears that the military could seek to cling on — despite the army chief saying there would be no intervention this time.
Photo: EPA-EFE
The Pheu Thai party’s main prime ministerial candidate, Paetongtarn Shinawatra, waved and made the traditional Thai wai greeting to supporters as she toured the streets in an open-top vehicle.
Dozens of trucks decked out in the party’s scarlet banners paraded from the Democracy Monument toward Bangkok’s main shopping district.
Supporters waved flags and chanted: “Pheu Thai landslide.”
“I hope Thai people will vote for us to solve your problems,” Paetongtarn told reporters.
Despite giving birth to her second child less than two weeks ago, the 36-year-old showed no sign of flagging in the scorching tropical heat.
“It’s only been 12 days, I’m a little bit tired, but that’s okay,” she said. “I’m so excited.”
Pheu Thai has been leading opinion polls, but the party’s route to power could face roadblocks from a Thai Senate handpicked by the military under the 2017 junta-scripted constitution.
Paetongtarn’s billionaire tycoon father, Thaksin Shinawatra, was ousted as prime minister by a military coup in 2006, while her aunt suffered the same fate at Prayuth’s hands in 2014.
Today’s poll is the first since major youth-led pro-democracy protests erupted across Bangkok in 2020 with demands to curb the power and spending of Thailand’s king — breaching a long-held taboo on questioning the monarchy.
Those protests fizzled out as COVID-19 curbs were imposed and dozens of leaders were arrested, but their energy has fed into growing support for the rival opposition Move Forward Party (MFP).
MFP leader Pita Limjaroenrat made his own push on an open-top truck tour yesterday, rallying support through a loudhailer.
“Please give the younger generation the opportunity to govern the country — we will take care of the older generation,” he told passersby.
The election has shaped up as a generational clash between the pro-democracy opposition, backed by young and rural voters, and the conservative, military-allied royalist establishment embodied by Prayuth and his United Thai Nation party.
Prayut, 69, has made an unashamedly nationalist pitch for votes and painted himself as the only candidate capable of saving Thailand from chaos and ruin.
NATIONAL SECURITY: The Chinese influencer shared multiple videos on social media in which she claimed Taiwan is a part of China and supported its annexation Freedom of speech does not allow comments by Chinese residents in Taiwan that compromise national security or social stability, the nation’s top officials said yesterday, after the National Immigration Agency (NIA) revoked the residency permit of a Chinese influencer who published videos advocating China annexing Taiwan by force. Taiwan welcomes all foreigners to settle here and make families so long as they “love the land and people of Taiwan,” Premier Cho Jung-tai (卓榮泰) told lawmakers during a plenary session at the Legislative Yuan in Taipei. The public power of the government must be asserted when necessary and the Ministry of
CROSSED A LINE: While entertainers working in China have made pro-China statements before, this time it seriously affected the nation’s security and interests, a source said The Mainland Affairs Council (MAC) late on Saturday night condemned the comments of Taiwanese entertainers who reposted Chinese statements denigrating Taiwan’s sovereignty. The nation’s cross-strait affairs authority issued the statement after several Taiwanese entertainers, including Patty Hou (侯佩岑), Ouyang Nana (歐陽娜娜) and Michelle Chen (陳妍希), on Friday and Saturday shared on their respective Sina Weibo (微博) accounts a post by state broadcaster China Central Television. The post showed an image of a map of Taiwan along with the five stars of the Chinese flag, and the message: “Taiwan is never a country. It never was and never will be.” The post followed remarks
Proposed amendments would forbid the use of all personal electronic devices during school hours in high schools and below, starting from the next school year in August, the Ministry of Education said on Monday. The Regulations on the Use of Mobile Devices at Educational Facilities up to High Schools (高級中等以下學校校園行動載具使用原則) state that mobile devices — defined as mobile phones, laptops, tablets, smartwatches or other wearables — should be turned off at school. The changes would stipulate that use of such devices during class is forbidden, and the devices should be handed to a teacher or the school for safekeeping. The amendments also say
CONSISTENT COMMITMENT: The American Institute in Taiwan director said that the US would expand investment and trade relationships to make both nations more prosperous The US would not abandon its commitment to Taiwan, and would make Taiwan safer, stronger and more prosperous, American Institute in Taiwan Director Raymond Greene said. “The US’ commitment to Taiwan has been consistent over many administrations and over many years, and we will not abandon our commitment to Taiwan, including our opposition to any attempt to use force or coercion to change Taiwan’s status,” he said in an exclusive interview with the Liberty Times (the sister newspaper of the Taipei Times) on Friday last week, which was published in the Chinese-language newspaper yesterday. The US would double down on its efforts
RSS