Thailand election 2023: Opposition Pheu Thai Party takes early lead in vote count

Party was leading with 22 per cent in race for House of Representatives

Pheu Thai Party's prime ministerial candidates Paetongtarn Shinawatra, right, and Srettha Thavisin at party headquarters in Bangkok on Sunday. AFP

Thailand’s main opposition Pheu Thai Party took an early general election lead in a vote count on Sunday.

With about 20 per cent of the vote counted, the party led with 22 per cent in the race for the House of Representatives, AP reported.

Pheu Thai had a 21 per cent share of seats in Thailand’s separate nationwide ballot for the 100 members elected by proportional representation, ahead of the opposition Move Forward Party in second.

The election took place nine years after incumbent Prime Minister Prayuth Chan-ocha came to power in a coup.

His United Thai Nation Party was fifth in the constituency vote with 7 per cent and third in the party preference total with 8 per cent.

Pheu Thai, headed by Paetongtarn Shinawatra, had been predicted to win at least a healthy share of the seats in the 500-member lower House, where 400 are elected directly.

But who heads the next government will not be decided by vote alone. The prime minister will be selected in July in a joint session of the House and the 250-seat Senate.

The winner must have at least 376 votes and no party is likely to do that on its own.

Pheu Thai is linked to billionaire Thaksin Shinawatra, who was removed as prime minister by a 2006 army coup.

Paetongtarn Shinawatra is his daughter. Her aunt, Yingluck Shinawatra, who became prime minister in 2011, was toppled in the 2014 coup led by Mr Prayuth.

Pheu Thai won the most seats in the last election in 2019, but its archrival, the military-backed Palang Pracharath Party, succeeded in forming a coalition with Mr Prayuth as prime minister.

Mr Prayuth is running for reelection, although the military this year has split its support between two parties.

Deputy prime minister Prawit Wongsuwan, another former general, leads Palang Pracharath.

Mr Prayuth has been blamed for a stuttering economy and thwarting democratic reforms, a sore point with younger voters.