Pita Limjaroenrat, Move Forward Party’s leader and prime ministerial candidate, poses for a picture during an upcoming election campaign event in Bangkok, Thailand. Reuters
Bangkok: Thailand’s opposition group should unite to force the military out of politics and create a government following an election in May, the leader of a popular opposition party told Reuters on the sidelines of a crowded campaign event on Saturday.
The election in Thailand on 14 May is expected to clash between conservatives who support the military and the populist opposition led by the Pheu Thai Party and its ally, the Move Forward Party. In 2006 and 2014, Pheu Thai-backed administrations were ousted by military coups.
“It’s very clear that the current opposition is the right answer for the challenges being faced by Thailand, not the military-backed party that staged the coup,” Move Forward leader Pita Limjaroenrat, 42, told Reuters backstage at the rally.
Pita believes that the collaboration with Pheu Thai is essential to unseat Prime Minister Prayuth Chan-ocha after more than eight years in government. Pita’s progressive party is well-liked among young people.
Former army commander Prayuth initially took control in a coup in 2014 and continued to serve as prime minister following the most recent election in 2019. He is running in the forthcoming election, but according to current surveys, Pheu Thai and Move Forward, who held onto the top two spots, are ahead of him.
Urban voters, notably those who backed a youth-led protest movement developed in 2020 to oppose Prayuth, are a stronghold for Move Forward. Pita said Pheu Thai had strong support from the working class and farmers in the rural north and northeast.
Pita said the alliance between pro-democracy parties was needed to overcome the outsized influence of the 250-seat upper house Senate, appointed by the military government before the last election, which will vote to pick the next prime minister along with the 500-seat elected lower house after the 14 May election.
“If the lower house is packed as much as possible with (those following) democratic norms and rules, we will be able to take away the conflict of the politics of the appointed upper house versus the politics of the elected lower house,” he said.
“I am sure we will see a big change here in Thailand,” he said.
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