Southeast Asia’s autocrats still want electoral legitimacy: it’s a paradox that’s particularly clear in the intentions of Myanmar’s junta and Cambodia’s strongman ruler Hun Sen to hold elections. Yet Thailand’s election, to be held on May 14, is different to these. While the contest is stacked in favor of conservative elites, there is a genuine element of contestability in this poll.
Thailand’s current government, a military-backed conservative coalition, has ruled since the last election in 2019, with Prime Minister Prayut Chan-o-cha at the helm. Remarkably, Prayut has now ruled Thailand for nearly a decade since he led a military coup against the Yingluck Shinawatra government in May 2014. A military-drafted constitution, which gave a large unelected senate a say in appointing the prime minister, helped him remain in power after the 2019 election, though his party was not the most popular.
