Local polls may have big impactToday's elections for Provincial Administration Organisations in the 76 provinces outside of Bangkok are the first local polls to take place since the 2014 coup and will be seen by many as a barometer of the mood inside a nation gripped by political unrest and economic downturn. It's said that the Palang Pracharath-led coalition government deliberately delayed local elections because it's unsure if it would emerge a big winner. According to the Election Commission (EC), 8,521 candidates registered for the PAO elections. To the untrained eye, that may seem like a perfectly logical response to the labyrinthine socio-economic hierarchies that hold sway over local constituencies in Thailand. In terms of the process itself, one can only hope that the polls are run as fairly as possible.

Source: Bangkok Post December 19, 2020 22:52 UTC