May 14. (EUROPE PRESS) –
The Thai polling stations have opened at 8:00 a.m. (3:00 a.m. in mainland Spain) to elect the new Government, facing the dominant and indissoluble bloc made up of the monarchy and the Army against an opposition founded on two pillars such as the desire for reform and the power of the Shinawatra dynasty represented respectively by the Avanzar and Pheu Thai parties, both absolute favorites in the polls.
In these elections in which more than 52 million people will participate, 7.5 percent of them for the first time, the majority of seats in the Thai lower house will be decided and the party with the most seats will be awarded the possibility of presenting a prime minister, but the Senate is dominated by representatives of the ruling party, capable of annulling this designation, as can the electoral commission or the courts, many of whose members were chosen by the last coup junta that led the country from 2014 to 2019.
A total of 70 parties, 1,898 parliamentary list candidates and 4,781 parliamentary candidates have registered to participate in these elections, while 63 people have been nominated as prime ministerial candidates by 43 parties. The Electoral Commission hopes to start reporting the unofficial election results from 6:30 p.m. local time (1:30 p.m. in mainland Spain), as reported by the Thai newspaper ‘The Bangkok Post’.
More than 147,500 police officers have been deployed to ensure law and order at some 95,000 polling stations across the country, national police chief Pol Gen Damrongsak Kittiprapas has said.
He added that “these officers will be divided into teams to protect polling stations during voting hours or be ready for rapid deployment to deal with specific incidents.”
The Electoral Commission has shared a series of rules that must be complied with, among which is the prohibition of consuming alcoholic beverages, since their sale will not be allowed until the polling stations are closed, it is not allowed to bet on the result of the themselves or buy or sell votes.
