Yesterday, Thailand’s Deputy Prime Minister Prawit Wongsuwon denied rumours about the delay of the country’s next, highly-anticipated general election and insisted that the country would finally get to vote on February 24 next year, as planned.
Though rumors that next year’s election will be delayed until April 28 have been circulating on local media for months now, at around 10am yesterday morning, Deputy PM Prawit told reporters at the Government House that the junta still plans to stick to their previously announced schedule.
“You [the media] ask me everyday if we will postpone the election date but it’s only others who are saying this. The government has remained steadfast [about the plan]” Prawit told reports in a broadcast interview.
“The majority of citizens want to vote… there’s no reason to postpone it” Prawit said, adding, however, that parties are still not allowed to campaign.
The rumors resurfaced with a fury this week after Tida Tawornseth, chief advisor to the red-shirt United Front for Democracy against Dictatorship (USS), took her skepticism about the polling date to Facebook Live on Tuesday, as reported by Thaipost.
And, to be fair, election delays are not exactly out of the norm for this government.
The junta first promised to hold general elections in 2015, back in the same year they first seized power after a bloodless coup in 2014 — but, of course, they later postponed them. Since then, polling dates have been changed at least three more times.
Meanwhile, pre-election politics are starting to heat up as more parties join the race, including the up-and-coming new kids on the block, The Future Forward party, whose registration was finally approved by the Election Commision last Friday, according to Bangkok Post.
With radically different parties offering very contrasting ideals now in the political arena, many see next year’s election as pivotal to Thai politics as they could finally give people a chance to really decide how they want the country to be governed.
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