00:00Voters in Thailand are going to the polls today in a snap general election with the economy and
00:08regional security emerging as key themes during the campaign. It appears to be a three-way contest
00:14between the country's progressive, populist and conservative camps. Asia editor Karishma Vyas
00:20joins us from Bangkok. Now hi there Karishma. Is there a lot of excitement or anticipation
00:26around this election? Well polling stations opened about two hours ago two and a half hours
00:34hours ago and we've seen a steady steady stream of voters coming in. Now what we know is that when
00:40early voting began about a week ago about 87 percent of people who had registered for that
00:46actually showed up and voted. So there is a tremendous amount of interest and engagement in
00:51this election. Now it's a tight race between two major parties really it's the Bung Jai Thai party
00:58which is the conservative party and it's forming the caretaker government at the moment and its
01:04opposition is the People's Party. It's a more progressive party that's been really campaigning
01:09on anti-corruption issues on reforming the political system as well as the economic system here. So the
01:16contrast couldn't be more stark in terms of the choice that voters have. Now something really
01:22interesting happened yesterday and that is that we saw the king of Thailand meeting with the
01:28conservative prime minister at the moment Anutin Chenvirigun who is the head of the Bung Jai Thai
01:33party and it's interesting because the royal palace in Thailand is not supposed to advocate for or
01:40promote one party or candidate over another. They're supposed to be apolitical but many Thais are viewing
01:46this meeting as a tacit approval of the conservative party so already we're seeing this election as
01:52being quite unusual. And how important is this ballot for Thailand? It's incredibly important because the
02:01economy is in real trouble. We've seen you know in the past Thailand was known as the Asian tiger economy
02:07of Asia and now it's being referred to as the sick man of Asia and that's because GDP is incredibly
02:15slow growth is projected at just two percent this year and some economists are saying that's been
02:20quite generous. Household debt here is amongst the highest in Asia and tourism is well down because of
02:28security concerns after the recent border war with Cambodia as well as the proliferation of scam
02:35centers along Thailand's border. So it's a critical time but Thailand has had three prime ministers in just
02:42three years so what the country really needs is some political stability. Karishma, separately Thais are
02:49also voting on a referendum about the constitution. Take us through what that's about.
02:56Yeah that issue has been kind of lost amongst all this election coverage that we've had but it's
03:02critical. Now Thais are being asked today whether they think the country needs a new constitution
03:08and that's because the current constitution was put in place in 2017 by the military government at the
03:14time. Now it was drafted by the military it was approved by a military-led government but Thailand
03:20has now got a civilian government and it will elect a civilian government. So Thais are being asked do they
03:26think a new constitution is in order? Now if they vote yes that triggers a very long and complicated process
03:34of more referendums, the drafting of a new constitution, that all has to be supported by political parties
03:42that are real bitter rivals at the moment. So you know a long road ahead but the first step is for Thais
03:50to decide whether they do want to go through this process. Okay, Karishma Vyast there in Bangkok for us.
03:56Thanks very much.
Comments