Thailand will choose its next leader as elections close on Sunday, with the counting process beginning later today. The election mainly pitted the ruling conservative Bhumzaithai Party against the progressive People’s Party.
Progressive People’s Party leader Nathaphong Ruengpaniaut, incumbent Prime Minister Anutin Charnvirakul and Professor Yodchanan Wongsawat are the main candidates. (AFP)Among the main candidates in the election are technical reformist, Nathaphong Ruengpaniaut, incumbent Prime Minister Anutin Charnvirakul and engineering professor Yodchanon Wongsawat.
Tech Progressive, Natthaphong RuengpanyawutThe leader of the Progressive People’s Party is an entrepreneur, Nathaphong Ruengpaniaut. With a dream to “innovate for the betterment of humanity,” according to his LinkedIn, Ruengpaniaut plans to build a technology company that could one day be known as the Google of Thailand, AFP reported.
Opinion polls show the People’s Party clearly ahead. Reformists like him oppose conservative power in Thailand, which has a long history of military coups and judicial sanctions against prime ministers.
Nathaphong, 38, is a former executive at a cloud services provider and was accused of supporting changes to Thailand’s strict royal insult laws, which could see him banned from politics.
In his election pledge, techno-progressive Nathaphong said his party would encourage limits on the powers of unelected institutions, including removing the constitutional court’s power to dissolve parties or oust prime ministers.
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The current Prime Minister is Anutin CharanvirakulFollowing him in the running is incumbent Prime Minister Anutin Charnvirakul of the Bhumjaithai Party. A hobby pilot and heir to a construction fortune, Anutin is widely expected to retain his post regardless of election results.
His party came third in the previous election, but the 59-year-old became prime minister in September after two of his predecessors were ousted by a court. He is widely known for decriminalizing cannabis in Thailand.
Analysts have predicted that Anutin could emerge as the face of the next coalition, riding on nationalist sentiment after last year’s border clashes with Cambodia.
Despite his wealth, Anutin presents himself as a man of the people, appearing on social media in a T-shirt and shorts. He also used his private planes to deliver donated organs to hospitals for transplants.
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The dynastic leader and professor, Yodchanan WongsawatThe front-runner in Japan’s polls is Yodchanan Ongsawat, a biomedical engineering professor at Thailand’s top university. Yodchanan also follows a popular political dynasty started by his uncle, former prime minister and telecom billionaire Thaksin Shinawatra.
The 46-year-old academic has no prior experience in elected office, although he contested a parliamentary seat more than a decade ago in a poll that was later annulled by a court.
Apart from Thaksin, who served prison terms for corruption, three other family members have served as prime ministers of Thailand, including Yodchanan’s father, Somchai Wongsawat.
The well-educated Yodchanan earned a PhD in electrical engineering from the University of Texas at Arlington and taught at Mahidol University outside Bangkok. He also holds several medical device patents, including a “brain-based sleep alarm system” and a “brain-controlled wheelchair”.
(with input from AFP)
