00:00Thai Prime Minister Anutin Charnvitokou's Pung Jai Thai party won a clear victory in
00:06Sunday's general election. The win raises the prospect that a more stable coalition
00:10may now succeed in bringing an end to a period of political instability that has long plagued
00:15Southeast Asia's second-largest economy.
00:20Pung Jai Thai's victory today is the victory of all Thais, Anutin said at a press briefing
00:24on Sunday, adding, we have to do the utmost to serve the Thai people with our full ability.
00:30With nearly 95% of polling stations reporting, preliminary results released by the Election
00:37Commission showed the Pung Jai Thai party winning about 192 seats, compared to 117 for the Progressive
00:43People's Party and 74 for the once-dominant Pua Thai party. A handful of other parties want
00:49to combine 117 spots in the 500-seat parliament according to a Reuters calculation of Election
00:54Commission data.
00:56We are so quite sure that we cannot win.
00:59Even as results were trickling in earlier on Sunday, the People's Party leader Nathapong
01:04Rung Panyot conceded that his party did not look likely to win. He said the party would neither
01:09join a Pung Jai Thai-led government nor form a competing coalition. Anutin set the stage for
01:16the SNAP election in mid-December during a border conflict between Thailand and Cambodia,
01:20a move that political analysts said appeared to be timed by the conservative leader to cash in
01:25on surging nationalism. It is a gamble that paid off for a prime minister who dissolved parliament
01:31less than 100 days after taking over from the ouster of Pua Thai party premier Peitong Tan
01:37Shinawac. When Anutin dissolved parliament in December, he cited dysfunction and infighting
01:42between rival parties as making it impossible to lead a minority government. Critical to Anutin's
01:48success were his embrace of nationalism and Pung Jai Thai's strategy of winning over politicians
01:53from rival parties in rural areas, analysts said. Thai voters were also asked to decide if a new
01:59constitution should replace a 2017 military-backed charter that critics say concentrated power in
02:05undemocratic institutions, including a powerful senate that is chosen through an indirect selection
02:10process with limited public participation. The Election Commission's early count showed voters
02:15backing the referendum by a margin of nearly 2 to 1. Thailand has had 20 constitutions since the end of
02:21its absolute monarchy in 1932, with most of the changes coming in the wake of military coups. The new
02:27government and lawmakers can start the amendment process in parliament with two more referendums
02:31senators required to adopt a new constitution.
02:43You
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