Thai poll results, for newbies
PHOTO: France 24
The numbers are still being counted but the trends are now quite defined so that any changes are unlikely to affect the final result.
According to popular vote figures from the Election Commission, with 93% of the total votes counted, Palang Pracharat garnered the most votes with 7.5 million, with Pheu Thai following at 7.3 million. But these figures do not necessarily reflect the actual makeup of the parliamentary seats to be announced some time today.
The lower house is made up of 500 members, 350 will come from single-seat districts. The remaining 150 will be distributed among parties based on how they fared nationwide.
The new constitution, voted on in 2017, states that the PM should be chosen by a majority of all 750 legislators, a number that includes 250 Junta-appointed senators.
An anti-junta coalition would need 376 lower house seats if its preferred candidate is to become PM. That’s the magic number any coalition would need to reach to overcome the votes of the 250 pro-military Senators in the upper-house.
But a coalition will be a tough compromise for many of the minor parties, including Future Forward, who campaigned heavily on the ‘break from the past’ platform.
Palang Pracharat may also be forced into a coalition if they can’t get a lower house majority.
