Thais Overseas Begin Voting in First General Election Since Coup
(Bloomberg) -- Thais overseas begin voting Monday in the country's first general election since a military coup in 2014.
About 120,000 voters in 67 countries have registered to cast ballots in advance, according to the Election Commission. The biggest proportion, nearly 14 percent, is in Australia, followed by the U.S. with almost 13 percent and China on a little over 9 percent.
Divisions between establishment royalists and backers of exiled former Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra are flaring again in Southeast Asia's second-largest economy ahead of polling day on March 24. A ruling is due Thursday from the Constitutional Court on whether to disband a party linked to Thaksin over a failed bid to nominate a princess as its prime ministerial candidate.
Read More: Rush to Disband Princess-Backed Party Evokes Thai Bloodshed
If the party, Thai Raksa Chart, is broken up, the overseas votes it receives could be void. Thaksin or his allies have won every election since 2001, only to be unseated by the courts or the military.
‘One Vote'
The current stretch of military rule under junta leader Prayuth Chan-Ocha, who is seeking to return as premier after the poll, is one of the longest in Thailand's modern history.
"No matter how far we are from Thailand, we don't take this opportunity for granted," said Ruangrin Aksharanugraha, a graduate student and overseas voter in southern California, which is thought to have the largest Thai population outside of Thailand. "One vote means a lot to us."
Overseas voting runs until March 16 and advanced ballots will be cast in Thailand from the following day. More than 2.6 million people have registered to vote in advance.
Provisional results are expected on the night of March 24, but the final certification could take weeks under the military-backed constitution.
To contact the reporter on this story: Siraphob Thanthong-Knight in Bangkok at rthanthongkn@bloomberg.net
To contact the editors responsible for this story: Sunil Jagtiani at sjagtiani@bloomberg.net, Margo Towie
©2019 Bloomberg L.P.
-
Talking Points This Week: Tech Nerves, FII Buying, And A Faraway Banking Shock
The global markets are not shining this Diwali. The exception in the large markets is, India.
-
Midterm Rally Lasted A Day. The Hard Reality Of A Divided US May Last Two Years | Opinion
Between a contested AI boom, a debt ceiling that arrives in 2027 and a president with every incentive to act alone, the next two years may prove more volatile than the first day's rally suggests.
-
Blue Wave Will Derail the AI Trade but Won't Dismantle the AI Era | Unhedged Position
The Democrats' sweep of the US Congress will see politics collide with economic forces both over the long and short term.
-
It's Time To Take The GST Council's Bet On Trust Global
Payment records can prove India's services exports, and clear, proportionate rules can bring foreign digital sellers into the tax net.
-
Opinion | India at 38: From Innovation Overperformer to Innovation Powerhouse
India now has 453 VC-backed deep science startups, 18 of them late-stage, after 117 percent growth since 2020. Laurus Labs, at USD 9.3 billion, is the most valuable deep science company in any middle-income economy outside China.
-
Navigating Energy Crossroads: S Jaishankar's Call For Diversified Supply Chains At G20 Ministerial Meeting
As geopolitical fault lines continue to test maritime trade routes and commodity flows, Jaishankar's message remains pertinent: true economic resilience requires open markets, protected transit lines, and a genuine commitment to multilateral cooperation rather than coercion.
-
Indians Are Travelling, But Not Every Journey Is A Holiday | The Week In Whys
Pilgrims, patients and working women are the real travellers, and the system hasn't quite caught up with them.
-
Getting To Work Costs Women More | The Reason Why
It is not just about women paying more than men. It is about women paying much more in cities than in villages.
-
AI Bias In Investing Cannot Be Eliminated, But It Can Be Governed
Framing is a particularly important example as identical financial information presented in terms of gains rather than losses can lead an LLM to reach a different assessment.
