People have turned against the Democrat Party's political stances, leading to its defeat in the Nakhon Ratchasima by-election, according to the result of an opinion survey by the National Institute of Development Administration, or Nida Poll.
The poll was conducted by telephone interview on March 10-11 on 1,317 people aged 18 and over who were eligible to vote in the South. The poll asked them why they thought the Democrat Party was defeated by the Palang Pracharath Party (PPRP) in the March 7 by-election in Constituency 3 of Nakhon Si Thammarat.
Nakhon Si Thammarat has long been regarded as a Democrat stronghold in the South.
Asked what they thought led to the Democrat Party's defeat, with each respondent allowed to choose more than one answer, the results were as follows::
- People were tired of and dislike the Democrat Party's political stances (46.62%)
- Prime Minister Prayut Chan-o-cha's popularity and outstanding work for the South led to PPRP's victory (18.53%)
- Party leader Jurin Laksanavisit's performance was not viewed favourably in the South (16.17%)
- PPRP's political actions were more favourable to southern people (13.59%)
- PPRP had a better campaign strategy (10.86%)
- PPRP's candidate was more popular than the Democrat Party's (9.72%)
Asked what the Democrat Party should do to keep the South as a major political stronghold, the answers chosen were:
- Former party MPs and party candidates should visit the people more often (45.94%)
- Party executives should worker harder to produce results (41.38%)
- The party should adjust its policies and political strategy (33,86%)
- The current party leader should be replaced (9.72%)
- The current party executives should be replaced (7.67%)
- The party should cross over to the opposition for a while to be more effective (4.02%)
- The party secretary-general should be replaced (2.73%)