With 30 percent of polling stations reporting results, Anutin’s Bhumjaithai Party has a commanding lead.

Listen to this article | 3 mins

info

Thailand’s ruling Bhumjaithai Party is on course for a victory in a snap general election, giving Prime Minister Anutin Charnvirakul the upper hand in forming a new coalition government.

With around 90 percent of polling stations reporting results, Anutin’s party is leading in 194 of the 500 seats in the lower house of parliament, according to partial results released by the country’s election commission.

Recommended Stories list of 3 itemsend of list

The results suggest that Anutin’s will likely fall short of securing an outright majority in the lower chamber. The progressive People’s Party is leading in 115 seats, and the populist Pheu Thai Party, backed by the billionaire former Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra, who was jailed last year, is leading in 77 seats, the results showed.

“Bhumjaithai’s victory today is a victory for all Thais, whether you voted for Bhumjaithai Party or not,” Anutin told a press briefing.

“We have to do the utmost to serve the Thai people to our full ability.”

People’s Party leader Natthaphong Ruengpanyawut appeared to concede defeat as the results came in, telling reporters, “We acknowledge that we did not come first.”

“We stand by our principle of respecting the party that finishes first and its right to form the government,” said Ruengpanyawut.

He said his party would not join a Bhumjaithai-led government and would also not form a competing coalition.

“If Bhumjaithai can form a government, then we have to be the opposition,” Natthaphong told a press conference.

Bhumjaithai, seen as the preferred choice of the royalist-military establishment, centred its campaign on economic stimulus and national security, tapping into nationalist fervour stoked by deadly border clashes with neighbouring Cambodia.

The party’s leader, Anutin, stepped in as prime minister last September, after his predecessor, Paetongtarn Shinawatra, was forced out of office for an ethics violation.

Threatened with a no-confidence vote, Anutin dissolved the National Assembly or parliament in December to call a snap election.

The rival People’s Party, which many had expected to win a plurality of seats, had promised to curb the influence of the military and the courts, as well as break up economic monopolies. Pheu Thai campaigned on economic revival and populist pledges like cash handouts.

Al Jazeera’s Tony Cheng, reporting from Bangkok, said there was a sentiment of “political fatigue” in the run-up to elections, but voters turning out Sunday were still hopeful about the prospect for change.

Constitutional referendum

Thai voters were also ‌asked during the vote to decide if a new constitution should replace a 2017 charter, a military-backed document that critics say concentrates power in undemocratic institutions, including a powerful Senate that is chosen through an indirect selection process with limited public participation.

The election commission’s early count showed voters backing constitutional change ‌by a margin of nearly two to one.

Thailand has had 20 constitutions since the end of its absolute monarchy in ⁠1932, with most of the changes following military coups.

If voters back the drafting of a new national charter, the new government and lawmakers can start the amendment process in parliament, with two more referendums required to adopt a new constitution.

“I believe that the party that wins in the next election will have an outsized influence on the direction of constitutional reform, whether we move away from the junta-drafted constitution or not,” said Napon Jatusripitak of the Bangkok-based Thailand Future think tank.