BANGKOK, March 25 (TNA) – Two leading parties in latest
poll results – Pheu Thai and Palang Pracharath – claim their legitimacy to form
a coalition government as the country awaits official results of the Sunday
election from the Election Commission (EC).
The EC on Monday confirmed that it would endorse and
announce the official result on May 9 but it would gradually release unofficial
results of constituency votes.
According to the EC’s announcement after 95 percent of votes
counted, Pheu Thai wins 138 seats while Palang Pracharath gets 96 seats from
constituency races. The Palang
Pracharath Party (PPRP) is expected to win more seats from the other type of
MPs, party-list, which can be calculated only after the popular vote is
announced.
Under the complicated mixed-member proportional (MMP)
electoral system, all votes cast are divided by 500, the total number of
members of lower house, to determine the party-list MPs.
Both Pheu Thai and PPRP in their latest pressers signaled
their moves to gather supports from other parties, asserting their legitimate
mandate to do so.
Pheu Thai Party’s prime ministerial candidate Sudarat
Keyuraphan said her party won the largest number of constituency MPs; therefore
it earned the right to form a coalition government.
The PPRP, meanwhile, indicates that popular vote supersedes
parliamentary seats as it reflects people’s votes and all parties have the
right to form coalition government.
In a press conference Monday afternoon, the party’s
spokesman Kobsak Phutrakul said the party had the right to form the next
government because it won the highest popular votes.
With 94 percent votes counted, PPRP wins 7.93 million votes
while Pheu Thai has 7.42 million votes, according to EC’s latest report.
Due to complexity of electoral system, the total seats of
each party could still change. Many
medium-sized parties such as the Bhumjaithai Party and Democrat Party have not
made clear which side they will join. (TNA)
