Bangkok (EFE).- More than two million Thais are called this Sunday to vote a week in advance for the legislative elections that next Sunday, May 14, can mark a change of direction in the Asian country.
According to the Election Commission, 2.3 million Thais had registered to cast their ballots today, a week before the rest of the 52 million citizens entitled to vote, prompting the first queues at polling stations in the capital. , Bangkok, and other big cities.
The election seems destined to be a duel between two opposition forces: Puea Thai, led by Paethongtarn Shinawatra (daughter of former Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra) and the reformist Move Forward party, led by Pita Limjaroenrat, which is rising in the latest polls.
In third place and far behind both is the new conservative force United Thai Nation, headed by the current prime minister, General Prayut Chan-ocha.
Prayut was head of the army when he seized power in a bloodless coup in May 2014 after months of anti-government demonstrations that had prevented an election that year.
Of an authoritarian and ultra-monarchical nature, the general silenced any dissenting voice at the head of the military junta and delayed the holding of the elections several times.
In 2019 he was appointed leader of the civilian government after the elections, which international observers described as not very transparent.
The vote will elect some 500 members of Parliament, although 250 members of the Senate will also participate in the election of the Executive, appointed by the former military junta and who have a mandate until 2024.