What happened in the legislative elections in Thailand?

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The majority party in Thailand, Palang Pracharat Party, was the most voted organization in the elections, which were apparently manipulated by the military

Who monitored the elections?

According to the newspaper El Espectador, Thailand's legislative elections held in March had only one international body monitoring them: the Asian Network for Free Elections.

Leer en español: ¿Qué pasó en las elecciones legislativas de Tailandia?

This organization stated that, although there were some irregularities in the election day, they are not enough to influence the results outright. El Espectador highlighted the words of this organization: "the voting processes went smoothly, although they were characterized by some variations in the application of the procedures that did not have a significant effect on the experience of the voters".

However, for the electoral processes in democratic countries, several international entities are needed to talk about free and transparent elections.

Who were the winners?

Predictably, the Phalang Pracharat party, influenced by the military junta, achieved 7.6 million votes and 97 seats, while one of the center-left parties, Pheu Thai, achieved the sum of 7.2 million and 137 seats, as reported by El País.

However, the concern is that the total seats are 500 and only 234 of them have been selected. For El Espectador, this situation can lead to an impersonation of seats, due to the fact that the National Council for Peace and Order (CNPO), the government junta after the 2014 coup, could handpick the people they can to occupy those seats.

Voices against

The most authoritative voices in the opposition are Pheu Thai and Thaksin Shinawatra. According to El Universal, Shinawatra, the former prime minister who was overthrown in 2006, told the media from Dubai: "Everyone in Thailand knows, the entire international community that observed the vote knows that there were irregularities (…) If the government is chosen from a rigged election, how do you want to get the respect of the international community?"

On the other hand, the opposition Pheu Thai questioned the performance of the National Electoral body. Well, according to France 24, Thai commented that the Electoral Commission had promised to have the results of all the seats in less than two days, but this was not the case. In addition, this opponent criticized the delivery of the results in the voting, because in the different bulletins different results were given.

Hit after hit

According to the German journal Deustche Welle, the last two decades in Thailand have been marked by coups. In 2006, the first coup took place, in which the military junta, loyal to the king, overthrew the appointed Shinawatra and dissolved the National Assembly.

For 2014, the military junta organized another coup d'état against Prime Minister Niwatthamrong Boonsongpaisan, after which the country experienced a time of protests and revolts.

Thus, Thailand has been characterized as having a democratic governmental apparatus, but in secret the final decisions are made by the military.

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Translated from "¿Qué pasó en las elecciones legislativas de Tailandia?"