Disclaimer: Our survey is entirely unscientific and is only meant to be indicative of the opinions held by The Isaan Record readership.
In this first edition of “Our Readers’ Views,” we tested the political temperatures amongst our readers. The results are surprising, and suggest a shift of political attitudes and an openness to new parties.
From the 109 of you who took the survey, 59.6% voted for the Future Forward Party, 26.6% would choose Pheu Thai Party (PTP), 4.6% respectively for the Moderate and Samanchon parties (MP and SCP), and the last 3.6% of the vote was split between a military-backed party, the Democrat Party (DP), and Ruam Palang Prachachat Thai Party (RPPTP).
The result is not promising for military hoping to win over voters; assuming the Moderate Party and the Democrats are not anti-military, then the survey shows at least 90.8% of these prospective voters are anti-military. It also shows that FFP, a newly established party, appears to have become extremely popular in a very short time, while the PTP, in a sense the last incumbent democratic government, still attracts a significant part of the vote.
When asked who they would choose as the next prime minister, 64.2% chose Thanathorn Juangroongruangkit, 27.8% either Thaksin or Yingluck Shinawatra, and 9% voted for Newin Chidchob. Although the NCPO leader Prayut Chan-ocha could expect 3.67% of the vote, another 6.4% would choose anyone but the present self-designated prime minister as the next one.
Another interesting note is that 59.6% would vote for the FFP, 64.2% would prefer Mr. Thanathorn as the next prime minister, showing his personal popularity is somewhat stronger than the appeal of his party.
For those 50 years old and older group, 46.3% favored FFP, 28.6% preferred PTP at 28.6%, and 10.7% received receive 10.7%. The rest of the votes was split evenly between SP, MP, DP, with each at 3.57%.
For those in the middle—aged group between 40-49— 60% said that they would vote for the FFP, 35% for PTP, 15% for MP, and 5% for SCP.
Given Mr. Thanathorn’s personal popularity, we asked the question of how much discrepancy there is between three-age groups of respondents not identified as male. Overall, this group was 76.9% for Mr. Thanathorn as the next leader of the country. For those 29 and under, just 57.1% chose Mr. Thanathorn, at 76.9%; those age 30 and 59, but for those aged 30-49, 92.6% would choose him.
His popularity for non-male respondents aged 50-59 running high at 83.3%, and a single non-male respondent over 60 years of age also preferred Thanathorn.
This survey was carried out between June 5 and June 8, 2018. Data received after 12 noon on June 8 was not included.
