Unofficial results from the general election in Thailand on Sunday indicate that opposition parties are likely to win the majority of seats in the lower house of parliament. According to the Election Commission, with nearly 99% of votes counted, the two major opposition parties – the Move Forward Party and the Pheu Thai Party – are expected to capture 113 and 111 seats respectively out of the 400 constituency seats in the House of Representatives.
The Move Forward Party, which has significant support among young voters, also came out on top in a separate poll to decide the 100 party-list seats in the House, securing more than 14 million votes, compared to Pheu Thai’s 10 million. The preliminary allocation of the party-list seats is yet to be announced by the Election Commission, but local media has projected that the two opposition parties will have secured a simple majority in the lower house of parliament.
More than 52 million Thai citizens were eligible to vote in the election, using a two-ballot system. One vote was for the 400 constituency members of parliament (MPs), and the other for the voter’s preferred party vying for the 100 party-list MPs, resulting in the election of a total of 500 members to the House of Representatives.
The Ruam Thai Sang Chart Party, led by current Prime Minister Prayut Chan-o-cha, is projected to take 23 constituency seats but was ranked third in the party-list poll with some 4.6 million votes.
The official election results are still pending verification by the Election Commission, which is expected to take place within 60 days. Meanwhile, the political parties are expected to begin negotiations to form coalitions, as the new prime minister will need to secure a simple majority from the 500 MPs, as well as the 250 senators, in accordance with the 2017 constitution.
