Thaksin Shinawatra is a Thai businessman and politician. He served in the Thai Police from 1973 to 1987, and was the Prime Minister of Thailand from 2001 to 2006.
Chuwit Kamolvisit is a controversial Thai politician who was once the country's biggest massage parlour owner, known as the "tub tycoon". After an arrest in 2003, he publicly claimed that he paid large bribes to many Thai police officers. He then sold some of his massage parlors, formed his own political party and unsuccessfully ran for Bangkok governor in August 2004. In 2005 he was elected for a four-year term to the Thai House of Representatives, but in 2006 the Constitutional Court removed him from parliament. In October 2008 he again ran for governor of Bangkok as an independent but was not elected. In the July 2011 general election his party won four seats in the House of Representatives. He used the pseudonym Davis Kamol on occasion.
The Democrat Party is a Thai political party. The oldest party in Thailand, it was founded as a royalist party; it now upholds a conservative and pro-market position.
Some parts of the Government of Thailand are selected through democratic elections. These include the House of Representatives of Thailand,, local Administrations, Governorship of Bangkok and national referendums. Thailand has so far had 28 general elections since 1933; the last election was in 2023. Voting in elections in Thailand is compulsory. All elections in Thailand are regulated by the Election Commission of Thailand.
Apirak Kosayodhin is a former Thai business executive and former governor of Bangkok. In the gubernatorial elections on August 29, 2004 he won with 40% of the votes. He was re-elected on October 6, 2008, in the gubernatorial elections with 45% of the vote, but he resigned a month later after being indicted on charges of corruption.
Elections for local councils in Bangkok were held in 2006.
Chamlong Srimuang is a Thai activist and former politician. A former general, he was a leader of the "Young Turks" military clique, founded and led the Palang Dharma Party, served for six years as governor of Bangkok, led the anti-military uprising of May 1992, and is a prominent member of the People's Alliance for Democracy, a group strongly opposed to former prime minister Thaksin Shinawatra. Chamlong had supported the military junta that overthrew Thaksin in a coup. A devout Buddhist and follower of the Santi Asoke sect, he is now celibate, a vegetarian, and claims to have no worldly possessions. Chamlong Srimuang received the Ramon Magsaysay Award in the category of Government Service in 1992.
Mom Rajawongse Sukhumbhand Paribatra is a Thai politician belonging to the Democrat Party. From 2009 to 2016 he was the Governor of Bangkok. He was removed from the post in October 2016 by Prime Minister Prayut Chan-o-cha who used Section 44 of the interim charter to remove the elected official. The reason given for his ouster was "...because he was involved in many legal cases." He was replaced by Police General Aswin Kwanmuang.
The Neutral Democratic Party was a Thai political party founded in 2006 by Somsak Thepsuthin, a former Thai Rak Thai party Cabinet Minister. The party had a similar populist line to the Thai Rak Thai and was expected to secure votes from Thai Rak Thai supporters.
The Government of Thailand, or formally the Royal Thai Government, is the unitary government of the Kingdom of Thailand. The country emerged as a modern nation state after the foundation of the Chakri Dynasty and the city of Bangkok in 1782. The Revolution of 1932 brought an end to absolute monarchy and replaced it with a constitutional monarchy.
The eighth gubernatorial election for the city of Bangkok, Thailand, was held on 5 October 2008. The election was won by the incumbent Governor Apirak Kosayothin, placing him in his second consecutive four-year term in office, winning 45.93 percent of the vote. Of a total of 4,087,329 eligible voters, 2,214,320 voted, giving a turnout rate of 54.18 percent, lower than the 70 percent target expected by the Election Committee.
The Bangkok Metropolitan Administration (BMA) is the local government of Bangkok, which includes the capital of the Kingdom of Thailand. The government is composed of two branches: the executive and the legislative. The administration's roles are to formulate and implement policies to manage Bangkok. Its purview includes transport services, urban planning, waste management, housing, roads and highways, security services, and the environment.
The ninth gubernatorial election for the city of Bangkok, Thailand was held on 11 January 2009. The election came about after the resignation of Apirak Kosayothin on 13 November 2008, the incumbent who was only just re-elected a little more than a month. the resignation stemmed from an indictment by the National Counter Corruption Commission or NCCC, in which Apirak was indicted for the controversial 6.6 billion Baht fire-engine procurement contract. The former Prime Minister and former Bangkok Governor Samak Sundaravej was also found guilty in the same verdict. On 13 November Apirak announced his resignation saying: "Like the Democrat Party, I support a move that will perpetuate politics-for-people" at the same time maintaining his innocence and stating that his resignation should become an example of a change in Thai politics, his resignation triggered an automatic by-election. By the end of the 11 January 2009, Sukhumband was declared the winner of the race, becoming the 15th Governor of Bangkok.
Early general elections were held in Thailand on Sunday, 2 February 2014, after Prime Minister Yingluck Shinawatra asked King Bhumibol Adulyadej to dissolve parliament more than a year early owing to Thailand's political crisis. Voters elected a new House of Representatives, the lower house of the National Assembly. Voting was disrupted in 69 of 375 constituencies by the opposition that had called for a boycott. This made a re-run in several stages necessary, depending on the security situation in the affected districts. The first re-run date was on 2 March. Results were expected to be announced after voting had taken place in all parts of the country.
The tenth election for the governorship of Bangkok took place on 3 March 2013. The election was won by incumbent governor MR Sukhumbhand Paribatra of the Democrat Party. Twenty-five candidates contested the election. Pol Gen Pongsapat Pongcharoen, representing the Pheu Thai Party, was regarded as the other major contender.
The 2013–2014 Thai political crisis was a period of political instability in Thailand. Anti-government protests took place between November 2013 and May 2014, organised by the People's Democratic Reform Committee (PDRC), a political pressure group led by former Democrat Party parliamentary representative (MP) Suthep Thaugsuban. The crisis eventually resulted in the removal of incumbent Prime Minister Yingluck Shinawatra, a coup d'état, and the establishment of a military junta.
Senate elections were held in Thailand on 29 March 2014 for the second time under the 2007 constitution. Half the senate seats were elected for non-partisan candidates under the first-past-the-post voting system, with voters electing one senator per province. Voter turnout was 43%, down from 56% in the 2008 senate elections and 46% in the February 2014 general elections, which had been boycotted by the opposition,
The year 2013 was the 232nd year of the Rattanakosin Kingdom of Thailand. It was the 68th year in the reign of King Bhumibol Adulyadej, and is reckoned as year 2556 in the Buddhist Era. The year saw the beginning of protests against Prime Minister Yingluck Shinawatra's government which led to a state of political crisis and the dissolution of government.
Following is a list of events and scheduled events in the year 2023 in Thailand. The year 2023 is reckoned as the year 2566 in Buddhist Era, the Thai calendar.
The 2000 Bangkok gubernatorial election was the sixth election for the governorship of Bangkok, and was held on 23 July 2000. The election saw the independent candidate, Samak Sundaravej, beat the Thai Rak Thai candidate, Sudarat Keyuraphan. The election also saw Samak become the first candidate in a Bangkok gubernational election to reach more than a million votes, which he did at a total 1,016,096 votes. The election took place before the 2001 Thai general election.
