Thailand will have its first election in eight years this weekend. Here's why it matters
The Senate will be entirely unelected - its 250 seats will instead be appointed by military generals, who are in control through the National Council for Peace and Order .
“A lot of Thai people, you can't give opinion or anything because [the] Thai army stop everything,” one Thai living in Australia said. People queue to cast their ballots during early voting in Bangkok on 17 March.The economy, which was crippled in the aftermath of the 2014 coup, is also on the minds of many Thai Australians.
Dr Raymond said its assumed most, if not all of the Senate seats, will be appointed to representatives who back Palang Pracharath and possibly other smaller, military-aligned parties. “It's unlikely that any one party is going to get a majority in the lower house, and then the government’s own party, General Prayuth's own party, they're unlikely at the moment to get 126 seats on their own."Who are the other parties?
Mr Thaksin was overthrown in 2006 military coup, while his sister, former Prime Minister Yingluck Shinawatra was ousted in 2014.Pheu Thai is the most significant, but smaller parties include Pheu Tham, the Pheu Chart and the recently dissolved Thai Raksa Chart, which was booted out of the race after it nominated the king’s sister as its candidate for prime minister.
“At the moment, the Democrat Party will have a fairly large bloc of votes, possibly over 100 votes, so they would need to negotiate there.”
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