Future Forward Party wins northern Thailand by-election

BANGKOK: Sunday’s by-election in Thailand’s Chiang Mai province saw a landslide victory for the Future Forward Party’s candidate over an archrival from the Palang Pracharath (power of people’s state) Party.

According to unofficial results of the contest for an MP seat in Chiang Mai’s Constituency 8, Future Forward Party’s candidate Srinual Boonlue won over 75,000 votes while Palang Pracharath candidate Nares Thamrong­tipayakhun gained about 27,000 votes.

Chiang Mai’s by-election was held as an aftermath of the handing out of an “orange card” from the Election Commission to Pheu Thai candidate Surapol Kietchaiyakorn who won in the March 24 election, pending a vote-buying case filed against him.

However, the Palang Pracharath Party is currently acting as the core of a coalition government with Thailand’s Prime Minister Prayuth Chan-o-cha as its head while the Future Forward Party is very likely being in the opposition bloc in parliament.

So are the Pheu (for) Thai Party and several others which have manifested an anti-Prayuth standpoint. — Xinhua