Poll reveals Thais hope President-elect Biden will be a “good leader”

Thailand’s Suan Dusit Poll has revealed that most Thais hope that the President-elect Joe Biden will be a good leader of his country. The opinion survey, by Suan Dusit Rajabhat University, was conducted online on November 13 through November 18, in which 1,038 people responded with their opinions throughout the country.

A majority of Thais, almost 90%, responded that they were interested in the US Presidential election outcomes and were following the news regularly. About 58% responded as moderately following the elections and almost 32% highly interested in the elections. Only about 10% of respondents said that they were not interested in the elections.

Of those who responded as being interested in the election, their reasons were largely due to the fact that they felt the elections have a large impact on the world economy, with almost 74% of poll’s respondents agreeing with that reasoning. About 61% of respondents said the reasons they were interested was because the US is a world superpower, while about 49% said they were merely interested in who would be the winner.

The elections come at a time when Thailand is grappling with an unstable political situation, as protesters against the government are pushing for constitutional amendments. Almost 61% of respondents pointed to this intersection of politics, citing the democratic election of a country’s leader by the people could be applied to their own country’s politics and society. About 57% of the people said they were highly aware of the issues surrounding the right to vote with around 53% citing the democratic electoral system in America was of interest.

However, only 48% said they felt Thailand’s economy would be better after the US election, with 47% believing it would stay the same. A mere 4.5% said they thought the Thai economy would be worse after the election.

Regardless of their reasoning for being interested in the elections, about 65% of respondents wanted whoever was elected as the next US President to be a good leader both at home and on the international stage. 62% wanted the new leader to forge friendships and good relations with other countries and almost 58% wanted him to refrain from taking advantage of and suppressing other countries.

SOURCE: Bangkok Post