A former elected Bangkok senator has announced her intention to run for Bangkok governor.
Rosana Tositrakul, 66, posted on her Facebook on Tuesday she “accepted the support of people for Bangkok governor”.
She wrote a lot of people encouraged her to run for City Hall office after reports she might be interested. Friends in various circles asked to meet her so she could talk with friends in their groups, she wrote.
“This gave me confidence I would get support and cooperation from various civic groups in Bangkok so we can come up with the right policies for problems in each area,” she wrote.
She added each solution must come from cooperation of people in each area.
“Before the election comes, I will visit communities to listen to their problems so I can come up with policies to change Bangkok by Bangkok people and for everyone in Bangkok,” she concluded.
Ms Rosana, an activist on healthcare and consumer rights, was instrumental in the exposure of corruption in the procurement of medicines and medical equipment by the Public Health Ministry in 1998.
She was elected Bangkok senator in 2006 but served only five months before both houses were toppled by a military coup.
She ran for Bangkok senator again in 2008 and won with the most votes. In the upper House, she teamed up with a group of appointed senators called the 40 senators group. They played a role in toppling People’s Power and Pheu Thai, the parties backed by former prime minister Thaksin Shinawatra.
She has recently been active in energy reform.
Apart from Ms Rosana, former transport minister Chadchart Sittipunt is believed to be preparing to run for Bangkok governor as an independent candidate.
The government has yet to set election dates for local elections, which have been suspended since the 2014 military coup.