🇹🇭 Is Thailand's election democratic? | Inside Story
ฝัง
- เผยแพร่เมื่อ 23 มี.ค. 2019
- The last time Thailand tried to hold an election in 2014, it ended with a military coup.
An army general took over as Prime Minister and promised to hold a new election.
It's taken five years for people to be given the chance to vote.
92-thousand polling stations opened across Thailand on Sunday.
Prime Minister Prayuth Chan-ocha wants to remain in office.
He faces a strong challenge from Pheu Thai, the most prominent anti-junta party linked to former leader Thaksin Shinawatra.
Six million young people are casting their ballot for the first time. And since the coup, numerous new parties have sprung up to court their votes.
But how democratic is the election?
Presenter: Nick Clark
Guests:
Sunai Phasuk - Senior Thailand Researcher at Human Rights Watch.
Michael Montesano - Senior fellow and coordinator of the Thailand Studies programme at Singapore's ISEAS Yusof-Ishak Institute.
Pavida Pananond - Economist and professor of international business at the Thammasat Business School.
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Oh look - the heading matches the story 🤣. An appointed Senate with the final say is the opposite of democracy.
why waste money on flaw democracy.
Hate it when they cut off the panelists because they run out of time. Y can't they edit or break it into part 1, 2....
Why does everyone hate Al jazeera and bring up Qatar? Yes Al jazeera is funded by Qatar but look at this video. There's nothing biased about it it's not like Qatar is trying to brainwash people
Agreed,being thailand a country with many foreigners at least this is one way of knowing whats going on without the language barrier!
al jazeera is a joke
I always found al Jazeera to be one of the best sources for objective journalism
@@maxman4194 Your life is
Don't watch it beggar
Have lived in Thailand since 2004 when Thaksin was really starting to abuse his power. He eventually went too far and was overthrown by a peaceful "coup" in September 2006 but used some proxy puppets (Samak, Somchai, Yingluck) to retain power and continue ripping off the country until the latest coup in 2014. Since then many Thais (and opinionated expats such as myself) have gone from cheering Thaksin's ousting and the soft-coup that sent Yingluck on the run to watching General Prayut morph into almost just another Thaksin but of the military variety. Prayut said there would be no coup - he lied, said he would not try to be PM - he lied, said there would be democratic elections soon - he lied, etc. etc. In the intervening 5 years he has systematically carved out a plan to increase military dominance of Thai politics with himself as the de facto dictator, increasingly intent on staying in power indefinitely. Hello North Korea, Hello Zimbabwe. This latest "election" which was promised for years and continuously delayed for bullshit excuses, has been very clearly rigged in favor of the military-backed PPRP with Prayut as it's sole choice of PM. Don't even begin to call it "Democracy". And now many people who once hated Thaksin hate Prayut even more. His party claim a "mandate" based on winning the popular vote while those numbers and the Election Commission who are in Prayut's pocket are deeply suspicious which many calling for their resignation. Meanwhile the opposition Pheu Thai party won the most seats in the lower house which according to the constitution declares them the winner, but now Prayut and his cronies are trying to ignore that and effectively re-write the rules in their favor. And the Election Commission keep delaying the final results while they conjure up ways of tweeking the result in PPRP's favor. Totally disgusting corruption. Now both sides are struggling to make enough shady deals with other parties to come up with a coalition majority, and it's just a bunch more cloak and dagger stuff, really ugly. One thing Prayut also promised five years ago was to "bring Thailand forward" and to "return Happiness to Thai people", both of which he has failed to do miserably. This "election" is a joke and once again Thailand seems totally unprepared for anything resembling "democracy" as long as the military stays dominant in politics and the national DNA remains so prone to corruption.
whats the point? if you win ..the army will just take it again..
That's a good point...
Thailand needs an unbiased third party to set up a new free and fair election in order to move forward and not be under military rule. Let the Thai people choose how the country should run whether under the conservative old regime or under the new democratic future. In order for Thailand to gain free and fair election, the human rights watch and/or the UN will have to intervene to help set up the new election.
Why an undemocratic and unsecular country Qatar is worried about Thailand?
The medium does doesn’t mean the country does.
My Thai wife in her home village which she went to school with or is family to most all poll workers, still must show her I.D to vote. But as an American in USA when I vote, I.D. is not required. You tell me which is more honest.
Poor Thailand. The people suffered. The country may seem to be "stable" with less competing political parties fighting on the streets, but not sure the military has offered any solution to the country's problem.
🇹🇭 People have the right to vote 50,098,986 people.
20,611,660 people were eligible to vote (92%)
Total eligible users 26,084,005 people
Exceeded 5,472,345 people
The military government is really good! Make more than 5 million cards over
Beautiful Thailand
Military = state sponsored gang.
Great for Folo
Thailand belongs to a dozen of families who own more than the 80 % of richness of the Country. That is the real problem. It isn't the so-called division between reds and yellows. It is the abyss between the 0.01% (who own the army as well) and the 99.99%
Hundred of pre-election independent online polls confirm public sentiment that the country is choosing against the military-backed parties 9-1. But in addition to many irregularities in voting processes, the outcome is shockingly reversing the observed public sentiment. I’m not surprised there is a thick smoke of uneasiness in the air.
Under the current rules by the guns, people are voicing their frustration in various ways. Some people are now looking forward and fear economic hardship from Thailand getting sanctioned by the global community.
It is very depressing and upsetting.
No more military government please
Seriously, as a thai born, this is blasphemy!
It better or the next country after venusla is an American over throw
Big countries like US, Canada, Australia, UK, Germany, France, China, Japan and all EU countries should start boycotting and cutting off all diplomatic relationships to force unrighteous Thailand Military Government to step down and return the ruling power to Thai citizens. It would be a pain and cause Thai economy to stumble but clearly it will be a much better option than the foreseeable civil wars that thousands of lives would be lost in vain.
Every vote counts...
This stupid question is to incite violence
Autocracy
These people obviously cannot analyze the arab countries and the OIC, they obviously have to go out to be relevant.
Corruption government
A
The Donald !!! Where is Donald Trump ?? The Donald can win !!!
Trump 2020 MAGA