Agreement targets monopolies, military, justice reform, but changes to royal insults law will be tabled independently

Pita Limjaroenrat’s party has assessed senators opinions and concerns and believes some now have ‘a better understanding of our policies’, its secretary general says.

Move Forward leader Pita Limjaroenrat says he has consensus to form a coalition, but is still 63 seats short of forming a majority of 376 across the Thai parliament’s two chambers.

The pro-reform party claimed more than 14 million votes in Sunday’s election, but it will have its work cut out if it wants to build a governing coalition in the face of a hostile military-backed royalist establishment.

The currency rose as much as 0.9 per cent against the dollar, with investors upbeat that a coalition government led by the Move Forward Party will be pro-growth.

Thailand’s Move Forward Party says it is ready to head a coalition government with opposition heavyweight Pheu Thai, after an “Orange Wave” decimated the conservative vote on Sunday.

With ballots counted from 97 per cent of polling stations, Election Commission data showed Move Forward Party on 13.5 million followed by Pheu Thai on 10.3 million with United Thai Nation party third on 4.5 million.

Move Forward’s Pita Limjaroenrat and Pheu Thai leader Paetongtarn Shinawatra hope young voters wearied by inequality and coups would help wrest power from conservatives.

Thai policy could shift to less support for the junta if the pro-democracy Move Forward Party becomes a coalition partner in the new government, observers note.

Former Thai PM says he wants to return in July to take care of his grandchildren, but claims he will not be a burden to his daughter’s Pheu Thai Party.

The birth of Thasin comes two week’s ahead of Thailand’s May 14 elections, in which Paetongtarn ‘Ung-Ing’ Shinawatra’s Pheu Thai Party is expected to win the most lower-house seats.

Pheu Thai, which has a long-standing affiliation with former PM Thaksin Shinawatra, won the backing of 41.37 per cent of roughly 162,000 eligible voters surveyed between April 10 and 20.

Pro-democrats hope to oust the ruling coalition of former army types and conservatives, in an election set to be Thailand’s most unpredictable in two decades.

Health minister Anutin Charnvirakul is confident his Bhumjaithai Party will be part of the next government after last year’s legalisation of cannabis – and his support of that – attracted more attention.

Paetongtarn Shinawatra, a 36-year-old with a jet-setting lifestyle and half a million Instagram followers, stands in stark contrast to her establishment rivals, two strait-laced former army chiefs with a combined age of 146.

The army veteran, in power since 2014 when the military toppled a civilian government, was elected as a civilian leader in 2019.

After years of living abroad, Thaksin Shinawatra – who was ousted in a military coup in 2006 and left Thailand in 2008 – says he wants to return to his homeland to spend the rest of his life with his family.

Opinion polls show Thai Prime Minister Prayuth Chan-ocha trailing political newcomer Paetongtarn Shinawatra, the 36-year-old daughter and niece of two former prime ministers.

Paetongtarn Shinawatra is emerging as the candidate to beat in elections expected by May. She is far ahead in the opinion polls, with twice the support of incumbent Prime Minister Prayuth Chan-ocha.

Paetongtarn Shinawatra says she’s confident of a landslide election win for her party and is ‘100 per cent ready’ to be a nominee for prime minister.

Prayuth Chan-ocha, who seized control of Thailand in a 2014 coup, is searching for ways to extend his eight-year rule despite his growing unpopularity and constitutional term limits.

Pheu Thai has said it’s aiming for a ‘landslide’ win in a general election expected early next year, as it seeks to end nearly a decade of military-backed rule.

Former army chief who led 2014 coup restored as prime minister after brief suspension, with court saying he has not exceeded term limit, but pro-democracy protesters angry.