BANGKOK – Thailand’s main opposition party with links to former premier Thaksin Shinawatra is seen to have the highest chance of forming the next government in a general election expected early next year, a poll showed.

Pheu Thai Party has the confidence of 73 per cent of 1,310 people surveyed across the country, who either said it “will definitely” or has “quite a high chance” to lead, according to the poll published on Sunday by the National Institute of Development Administration. 

Palang Pracharath, which leads the current coalition government, has the confidence of only 31 per cent of the same group of respondents.

In second place after Pheu Thai is the opposition Move Forward Party, an ally that’s seen as more progressive and more popular among young people, with 41 per cent of backing from the people surveyed, the Nida poll showed.

The Pheu Thai Party officially kicked off its election campaign this month, seeking to end nearly a decade of military-backed rule. It has pledged to lift minimum wages by 70 per cent by the end of a four-year term and to boost economic growth rate to an average 5 per cent annually if it is voted to power in elections that are due to be called by March.

Pheu Thai has said it is aiming for a “landslide” win with more than half the seats in the 500-member House of Representatives. Though it swept the most seats in the 2019 election, Pheu Thai was thwarted by Palang Pracharath, which was set up at the time to back then-junta leader Prayut Chan-o-cha. 

Thaksin’s daughter, Paetongtarn Shinawatra, is emerging as one of Pheu Thai’s potential candidates for the premiership and has played a key role in rallying support for the party in recent months.

She has dominated recent popularity polls by Nida, with Prayut’s approval rating continuing to slide after more than eight years in power.

In the last quarterly poll in September, she had 22 per cent of backing of respondents, with Prayut lagging at 10 per cent alongside Move Forward’s leader Pita Limjaroenrat. BLOOMBERG