Polls show Prayut most-liked

Polls show Prayut most-liked

PPRP 'has best odds' of forming new govt

Rangsit Poll by Rangsit University found that Prime Minister Prayut Chan-o-cha has the highest popularity. (Bangkok Post file photo)
Rangsit Poll by Rangsit University found that Prime Minister Prayut Chan-o-cha has the highest popularity. (Bangkok Post file photo)

After two polls recently found that the Palang Pracharath Party is most likely to lead the formation of a new coalition government and that Gen Prayut Chan-o-cha will emerge as the new prime minister, a poll aimed specifically at first-time voters reflected the Future Forward Party and its leader's massive popularity.

Rangsit Poll by the College of Social Innovation of Rangsit University found that Gen Prayut has the highest popularity, 29.3%, followed by Democrat Party leader Abhisit Vejjajiva, 17.7%, and Khunying Sudarat Keyuraphan of the Pheu Thai Party, 14.7%.

Sungsidh Piriyarangsan, the dean of the college, claimed that the Rangsit Poll is the only poll that has so far rated the popularity of political parties and their prime ministerial candidates by their total popular vote scores. These were calculated based on results found in six surveys run between May 1 last year and March 5 in which 8,000 respondents were involved.

Gen Prayut has constantly been in the lead throughout public opinion surveys, while Khunying Sudarat who at first came second in the same surveys has been beaten by Mr Abhisit in the last two, Mr Sungsidh said.

While Palang Pracharath is expected to win the election with the highest vote of 7.8 million and a total of 100 seats in parliament, Pheu Thai will likely receive about 5.8 million votes but gain more MP seats, 128, from the constituencies, he said.

Meanwhile, the Bhumjaithai Party is expected to win around 3.3 million votes and 38 MP seats, while the Future Forward Party will likely get 2.9 million votes and 30 MP seats, he said.

The Thai Liberal Party, or Seri Ruam Thai, is expected to receive 2.5 million votes and 25 MP seats.

Out of all 500 MP seats, the pro-regime Palang Pracharath is expected to secure anywhere between 280 and 300 MPs in its camp, while Pheu Thai and its allies are altogether expected to secure between 180 and 190 MPs, he said.

Mr Sungsidh said it is also possible that Pheu Thai and the Democrats might not win any party-list MPs. However, he admitted that results of the March 24 election aren't totally predictable given the high level of uncertainty, which makes it impossible to judge who will actually win.

All that can be surmised from these surveys is that the Palang Pracharath Party has the highest chance of leading the formation of a new government and that Gen Prayut will likely become the next prime minister, he said.

The Hatyai Poll by Hatyai University also found that the majority of its 400 respondents in a survey conducted between March 1-12 think that Palang Pracharath is likely to lead the formation of the new government, as opposed to Pheu Thai in the previous survey.

Another poll conducted by a student club at Chulalongkorn University's Faculty of Political Science, meanwhile, found the Future Forward Party had the highest popularity, 70.8%, among 1,266 eligible voters who are also students of the university.

The survey was carried out between Jan 28 and March 14.

The second most popular at 16% was Pheu Thai and third was the Democrat Party at 5.2%.

Do you like the content of this article?
COMMENT (39)