(Bangkok) The two pro-democracy opposition parties in Thailand have taken a large lead against the conservative pro-army camp, promised a stinging defeat in the legislative elections on Sunday, according to a partial count posted online by the electoral commission.
The Move Forward movement, which echoes the pro-democracy demonstrations of 2020, collects around two million votes, after counting 25% of the polling stations.
Just behind, Pheu Thai, led by Paetongtarn Shinawatra, the daughter of former prime minister in exile Thaksin Shinawatra, won 1.8 million votes.
The two parties thus create a gap with the conservative camp close to the army, led by outgoing Prime Minister Prayut Chan-O-Cha, whose United Thai Nation (UTN) party is third with around 700,000 votes.
These figures, updated in real time, confirm the trend seen in the polls, which announce a crushing defeat for the conservative government resulting from a military coup in 2014.
Paetongtarn Shinawatra, 36, is the latest incarnation of the wealthy family that has animated Thai political life for more than 20 years.
But his party is losing ground to Move Forward, whose anti-army rhetoric echoes the demands of the 2020 pro-democracy protests which demanded a major overhaul of the monarchy, a taboo subject in Thailand where King Maha Vajiralongkorn enjoys quasi-godlike status.
The complex electoral rules, drafted by the military, limit the chances of a single party obtaining a majority sufficient to govern.
The opposition needs 376 seats, out of the 500 in the National Assembly, to counterbalance the influence of the 250 senators appointed by the army.
The kingdom has experienced a dozen coups since the end of the absolute monarchy in 1932, a history of instability that leaves the scenario of military intervention or massive demonstrations in the event of a new political crisis.