April 4, 2023
BANGKOK – Election season has officially started in Thailand. In Bangkok, candidate registration is taking place at the Thai-Japan Youth Center in Din Daeng from 8:30 am to 4:30 pm.
The registration of candidates for Bangkok’s 33 constituencies with the general election being held on the 14 of May, giving registered MPs only 40 days to win their votes.
Party leaders, including the respective prime minister candidates and party executives, have come along to encourage their candidates while they were registering and drawing their numbers for campaigning before election day on May 14, 2023.
Leaders such as “General Prawit Wongsuwan”, the leader of the Palang Pracharat Party, “Ms. Paethongtarn Shinawatra” of the Pheu Thai Party, “Mr. Jurin Laksanawisit”, the leader of the Democrat Party, and “Mr. Korn Chatikavanij – the leader of the Chart Pattana Kla Party Party.
Paethongtarn Shinawatra, Head of the Pheu Thai Party
“It’s a bit difficult. We need to encourage fellow citizens to cooperate more and study the ballots. They should have made it easier. Everyone should have the right to vote without worrying and be able to choose a party they like and feel comfortable making the choice.”
Prayut Chan-o-cha, Prime Minister
“I’ve been around for several years. I know what I can and cannot do, and most importantly, I can stay put and continue to work because I know how to get things done.”
Prayut, who took control of the government in a coup back in 2014, and continued as prime minister after the 2019 election, is encountering a tough challenge from a revitalized opposition led by Paetongtarn Shinawatra, the daughter of billionaire former prime minister Thaksin Shinawatra.
After the drawing of numbers, the parties left the registration area along with their supporters to set out on the long hard road to campaigning for votes.
Candidate registrations will be open for five days.
According to the national population data used by the EC for calculating the number of constituency MPs in all 400 constituencies, there are over sixty-six million (66,090,475) Thai citizens.
Upon verifying the data of Thai citizens whose names are on the household registration for the first time in December 2015, the Ministry of Interior found over fifty-two million (52,287,045) eligible voters and first voters are more than 4 million (4,012,803)