2005 Thai general election
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All 500 seats in the House of Representatives 251 seats needed for a majority | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Turnout | 72.56% | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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This lists parties that won seats. See the complete results below.
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General elections were held in
Background
Following the 2001 general elections, the New Aspiration Party merged into Thai Rak Thai, although it the NAP was later re-established by Chingchai Mongkoltham. The National Development Party (Thailand) and Seritham Party also merged with Thai Rak Thai Party.
Electoral system
At the time of the elections the House of Representatives consisted of 400 members elected from single-member constituencies and 100 members elected from national party lists on a proportional basis.
Campaign
Democrat Party
The Democrat Party, led by Banyat Bantadtan, did not seriously expect to defeat the coalition of the other two parties, but hoped to win 200 seats, which would have been a gain of 70 seats. However, intra-party conflicts between Banyat's southern faction and the Bangkok faction led by Abhisit Vejjajiva made this goal appear even less realistic. The Democrats also developed a populist agenda, promising more jobs, free education and health care, and combating crime and corruption. However, the party refused to give details of their policies.[1]
The TRT's landslide victory cast doubt over the future of both party leaders, and Banyat resigned as Democrat Party leader immediately after the election. Abhisit Vejjajiva, Banyat's successor, said: "It will take a long time to revive the party because we need to look four years ahead and consider how to stay in the hearts of the people."
Thai Rak Thai
The Thai Rak Thai party was seeking to win an absolute majority in its own right, something no political party had ever achieved in Thailand at a genuinely free election. A coalition of other parties and civil society groups was formed to prevent this, arguing that Thaksin already had too much power and that giving him an absolute parliamentary majority would encourage what they alleged were his authoritarian tendencies. Prominent academic Kasem Sirisamphan, for example, accused Thaksin of running a "parliamentary dictatorship" and said that "people do not want a billionaire prime minister to further dominate the country and its politics."
Thaksin's party replied that it had provided Thailand with a stable, competent and corruption-free government, although critics said that corruption has actually increased under Thaksin's watch. Party spokesperson Suranand Vejjajiva said that Thais Love Thais was "the first party which could translate its populist policies into action. Its achievements and Mr Thaksin's vision give the party a clear edge and it will win an absolute majority," he said.
Thai politics tend to be regionally based.
During 2004 most observers suggested that Thaksin's popularity had declined since its peak in 2003, and that he was unlikely to achieve an absolute majority for his own party. The deaths of
Tsunami effects
These calculations were upset by the disaster of the
Veera also pointed out that the provinces directly affected by the tsunami were part of the Democrat Party's southern stronghold, and that Thaksin's high profile, particularly on state television, in delivering aid to the area might improve his party's chances of winning more seats in the south. "The Democrats might cry foul that Mr Thaksin is using the state media for campaign purposes," Veera wrote, "but the people may think otherwise." Only a miracle, he wrote, could turn the "tsunami tide which is now clearly in favour of Mr Thaksin." In the event the Democrats retained their dominance in southern Thailand, winning 50 of the 52 southern seats for which figures are available.
Pre-election predictions
Given such increased expectations, a failure by Thai Rak Thai to win 250 seats would have been seen as a considerable setback for Thaksin. The Bangkok newspaper The Nation published predictions by its reporters on 8 January, predicting that of the 400 constituency seats, Thai Rak Thai would win 233, the Democrats 94, Chart Thai 47 and Great People 26. If the parties achieved similar results in the 100 proportionate seats, this would have given Thais Love Thais about 290 seats overall and the Democrats about 120 seats. This proved to be a considerable underestimate of the scale of Thaksin's victory.
Results
Thaksin's party dominated most of Thailand's regions. In
Thaksin said he would now form a one-party administration, ending his uneasy coalition with
The day after the election, Thaksin said he would "work harder and faster to implement policies and resolve the country's problems." He said the government would "quickly boost Thailand's competitiveness in the international market, and would also look into improving religious affairs issues." This was taken as a reference to the situation in the south of the country, which has a large Muslim population, where there has been a history of unrest and disturbances, and where Thaksin's party won only one seat. The Nation newspaper reported: "Many voters [in the south] said they had lost faith in Thaksin, who has refused to apologise for incidents such as the deaths of 78 Muslims in October who were held in military custody after being arrested for protesting in the village of Tak Bai."
Party | Party-list | Constituency | Total seats | +/– | |||||
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Votes | % | Seats | Votes | % | Seats | ||||
Thai Rak Thai Party | 18,993,073 | 60.48 | 67 | 16,523,344 | 54.35 | 310 | 377 | +129 | |
Democrat Party | 7,210,742 | 22.96 | 26 | 7,401,631 | 24.35 | 70 | 96 | –32 | |
Thai Nation Party | 2,061,559 | 6.56 | 7 | 3,119,473 | 10.26 | 18 | 25 | –16 | |
Mahachon Party | 1,346,631 | 4.29 | 0 | 2,223,850 | 7.32 | 2 | 2 | 0 | |
Farmer Power Party | 298,517 | 0.95 | 0 | 618 | 0.00 | 0 | 0 | 0 | |
Debt Relief Party | 293,487 | 0.93 | 0 | 166,651 | 0.55 | 0 | 0 | New | |
Labour Party | 162,225 | 0.52 | 0 | 1,245 | 0.00 | 0 | 0 | 0 | |
National Democratic Party | 100,203 | 0.32 | 0 | 9,952 | 0.03 | 0 | 0 | 0 | |
New Aspiration Party | 88,951 | 0.28 | 0 | 133,935 | 0.44 | 0 | 0 | –36 | |
Phaendin Thai | 82,608 | 0.26 | 0 | 2,247 | 0.01 | 0 | 0 | New | |
National Development Party | 72,690 | 0.23 | 0 | 176 | 0.00 | 0 | 0 | 0 | |
Prachachon Thai | 61,540 | 0.20 | 0 | 29,099 | 0.10 | 0 | 0 | New | |
Social Action Party | 58,721 | 0.19 | 0 | 22,144 | 0.07 | 0 | 0 | –1 | |
Thai Help Thai | 50,127 | 0.16 | 0 | 618 | 0.00 | 0 | 0 | New | |
Thai Citizen Party | 38,324 | 0.12 | 0 | 7,023 | 0.02 | 0 | 0 | 0 | |
Thai Natural Party | 37,916 | 0.12 | 0 | 2,694 | 0.01 | 0 | 0 | New | |
People's Power Party | 26,855 | 0.09 | 0 | 0 | 0 | ||||
Rak Thin Thai | 26,585 | 0.08 | 0 | 2,942 | 0.01 | 0 | 0 | New | |
Thai Farmer Party | 24,232 | 0.08 | 0 | 1,229 | 0.00 | 0 | 0 | New | |
Third Choice Party | 13,237 | 0.04 | 0 | 900 | 0.00 | 0 | 0 | New | |
Kasikorn Thai Party | 6,703 | 0.02 | 0 | 0 | 0 | ||||
Force of Virtue | 576 | 0.00 | 0 | 0 | New | ||||
Protect Thai Land Party | 305 | 0.00 | 0 | 0 | New | ||||
Thai Tribal Party | 262 | 0.00 | 0 | 0 | New | ||||
Krit Thai Kong Party | 99 | 0.00 | 0 | 0 | New | ||||
Blank votes | 357,515 | 1.14 | – | 741,276 | 2.44 | – | – | – | |
Total | 31,405,738 | 100.00 | 100 | 30,398,992 | 100.00 | 400 | 500 | 0 | |
Valid votes | 31,405,738 | 97.11 | 30,398,992 | 94.01 | |||||
Invalid votes | 935,586 | 2.89 | 1,938,590 | 5.99 | |||||
Total votes | 32,341,324 | 100.00 | 32,337,582 | 100.00 | |||||
Registered voters/turnout | 44,572,101 | 72.56 | 44,572,101 | 72.55 | |||||
Source: Nelson,[2] ECT, CLEA |
By province
References
- ^ Aurel Croissant and Daniel J. Pojar, Jr., Quo Vadis Thailand? Thai Politics after the 2005 Parliamentary Election Archived 2009-04-19 at the Wayback Machine, Strategic Insights, Volume IV, Issue 6 (June 2005)
- ^ Michael H. Nelson (2008), Thaksin’s 2005 Electoral Triumph:Looking Back From the Election in 2007
- "Rivals battle to end Thaksin era," Bangkok Post, 6 January 2005
- Veera Prateepchaikul, "Thaksin is swept along by the tsunami," Bangkok Post, 10 January 2005
Literature
- Chambers, Paul (2006), "Consolidation of Thaksinocracy and Crisis of Democracy: Thailand's 2005 General Election", Between Consolidation and Crisis: Elections and Democracy in Five Nations in Southeast Asia, Berlin: Lit, pp. 277–328
External links
- Elections under Thaksin - a rural perspective
- Angus Reid Consultants - Election Tracker
- The Nation's guide to the general election Archived 2005-09-14 at the Wayback Machine
- Realtime vote-counting report
- News about Thailand's 2005 General Election Archived 2011-07-09 at the Wayback Machine
- Why Thaksin succeeds Archived 2005-02-09 at the Wayback Machine