Voting begins in Thailand’s general election

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Bangkok, May 14 (Hindustan Times). Voting began this (Sunday) morning for the general election in Thailand. Thailand is the second largest economy in Southeast Asia.

Voting started at 8 am Indian time. Voting will end at 5 pm. About 52 million voters will choose the members of the new 500-seat House of Representatives for the next four years. The lower house of parliament has a total of 500 seats.

Of this, 400 are constituency seats and the remaining 100 seats are distributed in proportion to each party’s total vote share. This is the second election after the military coup in 2014. In 2014, the army ousted the elected government and restored a conservative faction.

Thailand’s two main parties, Pheu Thai and Progressive Move Forward, are leading the general election. Both have campaigned to remove the army from politics. Pheu Thai, the party of billionaire Thaksin Shinawatra, has a big lead in opinion polls.