Thailand Elections 2023

Report by Dhruva KC

Thailand released the national election results on Sunday, May 14^th.

The opposition party, (the party trying to win against the ruling party) MFP (Move Forward Party), won against The United Thai Nation Party.

What is an election?

Most of the modern day countries are democracies, meaning the people of the country can decide who will be their leader. This process is called an election.

What type of democracy is Thailand?

There are four types of democracies. Thailand is a parliamentary democracy, which means that the people elect representatives, or members, to a parliament.

What is a parliament?

A parliament is a group of people that control the government of their country (in this case, Thailand).

Thailand has 500 seats in its parliament. The winner is decided by who secures more seats. This year, MFP got more votes, securing 152 seats out of the total 500. It also got 32 out of 33 seats in Bangkok, the capital of Thailand.

The winning party for many years was The United Thai Nation Party. It is supported by the Thai Army. This party is led by Prayuth Chan-ocha, the Prime Minister (PM) of Thailand. The voting pattern in this election showed the citizens wanted a change in government.

The leader of MFP is Pita Limjaroenrat. He graduated from Bangkok’s Thammasat University with a Bachelor’s degree in finance, from Harvard University with Master’s in public policy, and from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology with an MBA.

After his studies he took over the rice bran oil company that belonged to his father, and later became the executive director of Grab Thailand, a ride-hailing company.

This election result does not guarantee that Mr. Pita will become the PM of Thailand, because that is a decision to be taken by the Senate and Lower house.