Thailand elections: Vote counting shows Thaksin’s daughter as frontrunner

Voting has closed in Thailand’s general election, where the daughter of ousted former prime minister Thaksin Shinawatra is the frontrunner.

The election is being described as a turning point for a country that has experienced a dozen military coups in its recent history.

Prime Minister Prayuth Chanocha, the army general who led the last coup in 2014, is seeking another term.

But, he is facing a strong challenge from two anti-military parties.

Vote counting got under way after polls closed at 17:00 (10:00 GMT) on Sunday - voting began at 8:00 am (01:00 GMT) at the 95,000 polling stations across the country.

About 50 million people were expected to cast their ballots to elect 500 members of the lower house of parliament - and some two million people had voted early.

A preliminary vote count showed the Pheu Thai Party (For Thais) was ahead with 6.45% of eligible votes, followed by another opposition party Move Forward.

Leading the race is Pheu Thai, led by Mr Thaksin’s daughter, Paetongtarn Shinawatra.

The 36-year-old is harnessing her father’s wide patronage network while sticking to the populist message that has resonated with rural, lowincome regions of the country.

Mr Thaksin, a telecommunications billionaire, is loved by many lower-income Thais, but is deeply unpopular with the royalist elite. He was ousted in a military coup in 2006, when his opponents accused him of corruption. He has denied the allegations and has since been living in exile since 2008 in London and Dubai.

“I think after eight years, the people want better politics, better solutions for the country than just coups d’etat,” Ms Paetongtarn told the BBC in a recent interview.

Move Forward, led by Pita Limjaroenrat, a 42-year-old former tech executive, has also been rising fast in opinion polls. Its young, progressive and ambitious candidates have been campaigning on a simple but powerful message: Thailand needs to change.

“And the change is really not about having another coup. Because that’s a change backwards. It’s about reforming the military, the monarchy, for a democratic future, with better economic performance,” says Thitinan Pongsudhirak, from the Institute of Security and International Studies at Chulalongkorn University.

Meanwhile, Mr Prayuth, 69, is lagging in opinion polls. He seized power from the government of Mr Thaksin’s sister, Yingluck Shinawatra, in 2014, following months of turmoil.

Thailand held an election in 2019, but the results showed no clear party had won a majority.

Weeks later, a pro-military party formed the government and named Mr Prayuth as its PM candidate in a process that the opposition said was unfair.

The following year a controversial court ruling dissolved Future Forward, the previous iteration of Move Forward, which had performed strongly in the election thanks to the passionate support of younger voters.

That sparked off mass protests lasting 6 months which called for reform of the military and the monarchy.

With nearly 70 parties contesting this election, and several large ones, it is unlikely any one party will get an outright majority of the seats in the lower house.

But even if one party does win a majority, or has a majority coalition in place, the political system bequeathed by the military-drafted 2017 constitution, and a range of other extra-electoral authorities, can prevent it from taking office.

The constitution, written while Thailand was under military rule, created a 250-seat appointed senate, which gets to vote on the choice of the next PM and government.

As the senators were all appointed by the coup leaders they have always voted in favour of the current, military-aligned government, and never in favour of the opposition.

So technically any party without the senate’s backing would need a super-majority of 376 out of the 500 seats, an unobtainable target.

Source: BBC ceremony.

Previous winners include Winston Churchill, Pope Francis and Bill Clinton.

In other developments on Sunday:

• Ukraine's air force says it destroyed 25 drones and three cruise missiles launched by Russia in yet another massive overnight attack

• Six people were killed and another 16 injured in the past 24 hours in Russian shelling of Ukraine-held areas in the eastern Donetsk region, local officials said

• One person was killed in Sunday's Russian artillery attack on the southern Kherson region

• Mobile internet is temporarily suspended in the Russian-seized areas of the eastern Luhansk region because of increased shelling by Ukrainian troops, Moscow-installed officials said

President Zelensky flew to Germany from Italy overnight, his plane escorted by two German Air Force fighter jets.

In Rome, the Ukrainian leader met Italian President Sergio President Mattarella and Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni. He also had a private audience with Pope Francis at the Vatican.

The Argentine pontiff said he was constantly praying for peace in Ukraine.

The Pope also stressed the urgent need to help "the most fragile people, innocent victims" of the Russian invasion.

Meanwhile, Ms Meloni assured Mr Zelensky of Rome's support for united Ukraine.

Later on Sunday, the Ukrainian leader arrived in Paris, where he will have talks with French President Emmanuel Macron.

Belarus leader Alexander Lukashenko misses event, fuelling health rumours

Belarus’ leader Alexander Lukashenko has missed a major state celebration, further fuelling health speculation.

The autocratic politician, 68, usually speaks publicly at the annual National Flag, Emblem and Anthem Day event but his prime minister read a message on his behalf on Sunday.

Last week, Mr Lukashenko left Moscow soon after Victory Day parade, skipping lunch with President Vladimir Putin.

Mr Lukashenko looked visibly tired, and his right hand was bandaged.

He was last seen in public laying flowers in the capital Minsk during Belarus’ own Victory Day celebrations on 9 May - a few hours after returning from the Russian capital.

An opposition Telegram channel reported that Mr Lukashenko visited a presidential medical centre just outside Minsk on Saturday nightbut this information has not been independently verified.

Mr Lukashenko’s office has so far made no comments on the issue.

Often described in the West as Europe’s last dictator, Mr Lukashenko has ruled Belarus since 1994, suppressing any dissent.

In 2020, he was proclaimed as the winner of presidential elections, which were denounced by the opposition as a sham.

Thousand of people were later arrested and brutally beaten by riot police and KGB security service agents during mass anti-government protests that rocked the country.

However, Mr Lukashenko managed to stay in power, backed by Russia.

Last year, he supported President Putin’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine, offering Belarus as a launchpad for Russian troops to cross into Ukraine and allowing Russian war planes to carry out strikes from Belarusian soil.