Move Forward galvanises Thai voters with vows of royal reforms

AL Jazeera News:

Bangkok, Thailand – On a busy intersection outside the Thai capital Bangkok, a young woman with a heavy megaphone urged passersby to vote for her in Sunday’s general election, promising a “new kind of politics” that would curb the monarchy and the military’s stranglehold over the Southeast Asian country’s affairs.

“It’s time for change,” 30-year-old Chonthicha Jangrew said on Thursday, her voice slightly hoarse from months on the campaign trail.

“We’ve been under military rule for nine years. It’s time to remove the military from Thai politics.”

Chonthicha, who goes by the name “Lookkate”, is at the vanguard of the youth-led Move Forward Party (MFP) that has energised Thailand’s voters, young and old alike. For too long, the choice for voters in the country of 71 million has either been parties aligned with the royalist-military establishment or that of self-exiled billionaire Thaksin Shinawatra. The fierce power struggle between the two sides has kept the country at a political standstill for nearly two decades, with the governments of Thaksin and his sister, Yingluck, removed in military coups in 2006 and 2014, respectively.

In Chonthicha’s constituency, Pathum Thani province, 41km (26 miles) north of Bangkok, the appetite for change appeared high.

Many people on their morning commute paused briefly, rolling down their windows to flash a thumbs up and offer words of support.