Bangkok residents vote this Sunday, for the first time since 2013, to the future governor of the Thai capitalin elections marked by the first voters, who represent more than 15.5 percent of the ballots, and after the protests in favor of democratic reforms registered in the country.
With dozens of electoral debates, in one of which the Australian actor Russell Crowe intervened to ask questions of the main candidates, and a wide range of issues, in which the Monarchy has also slipped in, these local elections have raised great expectations .
political analysts have indicated that the result of the votes can be translated into a national code, where the prime minister, Prayut Chan-ocha, the general who led the 2014 coup and since 2019 turned into a politician, shows enormous wear and tear ahead of the 2023 general elections.
Paradoxically, the elections coincide with the eighth anniversary of the military uprising.
Pollution, the cost of living, infrastructure plans, education and aid to the most vulnerable people are some of the bunch of issues that the candidates have discussed, which They have also had to position themselves on a more ‘tricky’ issue: the Royal House, protected from criticism by local law.
Since the accession to the throne in 2016 of King Vajiralongkorn it is evident the increase in the discontent of a large part of the population about the almighty Thai monarchy, one of the wealthiest in the world.
In mid-2020, a movement led by young university students ibegan a series of massive protests calling for a profound democratic reform of the country and aimed, in an almost unprecedented act, directly at the Royal House.
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The covid-19 pandemic and the judicial harassment of the main leaders has plunged the protests into a prolonged hiatus for months. But during the electoral campaign, the most progressive candidates have put on the table the problem of the traffic jams caused by the caravan of cars that accompany the members of the monarchy, which force traffic to be cut off for long periods, as a nod to the younger voters. A key sector in the elections because some 700,000 people, or about 15.5% of the 4.5 million voters, will exercise their right for the first time for the Bangkok election.
The clear favorite, according to various polls, is former transport minister Chadchart Sittipunt, 55, who is running on an independent platform and has a 100-point program to improve this chaotic metropolis. Chadchart, removed from politics since the coup d’état that removed him from his position as Minister of Transport, has managed to combine a feeling of change with the commitment to formulate progressive policies and know how to take advantage of the hundreds of jokes he stars on the internet thanks to his fame of ‘strong’.
Bangkok, which has traditionally been a fiefdom of conservative parties, has not held elections to appoint governor since 2013, when the Democratic Party won, while the current councilor, Aswin Kwanmuang, was handpicked in 2016 by the military junta. Precisely, Aswin – 71 years old and an independent candidate – remains second in the polls, but at a significant distance, while other candidates with fewer possibilities are Wiroj Lakkhanaadisorn (44), from the progressive party Move Forward; and the conservative Suchatvee Suwansawat (49), from the Democratic Party.
31 independent candidates and those linked to political parties compete in the elections, where the representatives of the dozens of districts of the city will also be elected.
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