On September 10, the Move Forward Party won a stomping victory in the byelection for Rayong’s third constituency. The MFP candidate, Phongsathorn Sornpetchnarin, won almost 60 percent of the votes cast, while the Democrat candidate, Banyat Chetanachan, won around 40 percent. 

The Move Forward victory came despite what seemed like the party’s best efforts to shoot itself in the foot in that particular constituency. The byelection was happening only because the previous Move Forward MP, newly elected in May, had resigned after it was revealed that he had a previous criminal conviction for theft: those with previous prison sentences are prohibited from running to be an MP. The following decision to run Phongsathorn in the constituency hardly improved things, for he was accused of having failed to pay income tax, although he quickly clarified that he had not made enough income to be required to file a tax return form. 

None of this was to matter though. Against the Move Forward machine, the Democrats’ three-term Banyat stood no chance. For a long time, it was said that the Democrats could send an electrical pole as a candidate in the south and still win. Now Move Forward may also be approaching ‘electrical pole’ levels of popularity. 

Click here to read the full piece at Thai Enquirer.