The winds of change are blowing in Thailand, with the nine-year military rule following the 2014 coup, coming to an end. Opposition parties have emerged victorious in what is being termed as Thailand's most pivotal election in decades. The Move Forward Party, led by 42-year-old Peter Lim Jarad, has emerged on top and is looking to form an alliance with other progressive and like-minded parties.

Thailand's progressive and reformist Opposition parties have won the most number of seats in the general elections striking a body blow to pro-military parties which have ruled the South Asian state for close to a decade.

However, the road to power for the reformist parties may not be easy — Sunday’s winner is not assured the right to form the new government. A joint session of the 500-seat House of Representatives will be held with the 250-member Senate in July to select the prime minister, a process widely seen as undemocratic because the military-appointed senators will vote along with elected lawmakers. A candidate should get at least 376 votes to sail through as prime minister.

Anil Wadhwa, former Indian ambassador to Thailand, said he had sensed "a tremendous amount of disenchantment with the military, led parties" and that the two main military-led parties had fallen out of favour as, after COVID-19, "day-today living problems" are on voters' minds.

Speaking on CNBC-TV18's Newscentre, Wadhwa said Sunday's (April 14) election result was a culmination of several problems. "Expenses and unemployment have gone up in Thailand. Tourism has not been doing well. All these problems have compounded and have come together," Wadhwa said.

The result notwithstanding, Wadhwa says the military and the conservatives could have a trick or two up their sleeves.

"Thailand has had a history of military and the conservatives always using the constitutional institutions, especially the judiciary, and, similar institutions which are dominated by their nominees, to disqualify the Opposition parties and that is the main fear here," he explained.

Also read: Opposition parties win big in Thailand election on promises of reform

He further said there is some doubt on whether the Move Forward Party and Pheu Thai Party — two of the biggest winners on Sunday — can work together "because they were unlikely to come together before the elections.”

But I think they've both seen what has happened in the past and at the moment, they are firmly together, they declared support for each other, he said.

Wadhwa added that one of the planks Move Forward Party had run on was including plans to weaken the military's political role and amend a strict law on royal insults that critics say is used to stifle dissent.

"The misuse of the law (have seen) a number of people languishing in high jails for many, many years. The students don't like this at all. The young population does not like this at all. They feel it's an outdated law which must be done away with and obviously the monarchy, with the help of the military and the conservative parties, will try to thwart this as much as possible," Wadhwa said.

He said India's bilateral ties with Thailand will not be affected by this outcome.

"A number of governments have come and gone and we have always maintained good bilateral relationship with any kind of government in Thailand, which exists essentially on the business side of Thailand. The cooperation that India has received from Thailand over the past two or three decades in terms of counterterrorism efforts and making sure that fugitives from law are repatriated back to India — that cooperation is doing very well. I'm sure the Indian and the Thai governments, whichever Thai government is in place, will continue to make sure that the cooperation is kept up, trade is doing pretty well and so are investments."

Also read: Thailand opposition crushes military parties in election rout

(Edited by : Shoma Bhattacharjee)

First Published:May 15, 2023 7:21 PM IST