Thai premier Anutin’s support declines as election looms

BANGKOK – Thai Prime Minister Anutin Charnvirakul’s popularity has dropped further behind the leader of an opposition party, an opinion poll shows, with an

election less than two months away

.

Support for both Mr Anutin and People’s Party head Natthaphong Ruengpanyawut has declined, according to a Dec 4 to 12 National Institute of Development Administration survey.

Some 12.32 per cent of respondents supported the Prime Minister in the latest poll, while 17.2 per cent backed the opposition leader. That compares with 20.44 per cent for Mr Anutin and 22.8 per cent for Mr Natthaphong in the institute’s quarterly poll in September.

The number of Thais who said they did not believe there were any suitable candidates for prime minister jumped to 40.6 per cent from 27.28 per cent. 

The latest survey was mainly conducted after the country was , and before Mr Anutin dissolved Parliament last week.

The Prime Minister has also hardened his stance against Cambodia, with

border clashes between the two countries re-erupting

despite a ceasefire agreement brokered by US President Donald Trump. 

Mr Anutin’s tough line with Cambodia taps into nationalist sentiment and will win the backing of conservatives. Still, he has come under heavy criticism for his government’s response to some of the most devastating floods to hit southern Thailand in decades. 

Mr Anutin, who has been in power for only about three months,

dissolved Parliament last week

to prevent his minority government from being toppled in a potential no-confidence vote threatened by Mr Natthaphong’s party. The country’s election commission is expected to announce an election date this week.

Even with the incumbency advantage heading into the polls, Mr Anutin’s ruling Bhumjaithai Party still lacks the popularity of the People’s Party, which leads the latest survey with the backing of 25.28 per cent of respondents. Bhumjaithai ranks fourth, with 9.92 per cent of support.

Both parties’ approval ratings have declined from the previous quarter and the percentage of respondents undecided about which group to support has risen to 32.36 per cent.

The two parties will seek to win with large enough margins in the upcoming election to end a sequence of short-lived administrations since 2023 in a country where growth lags that of neighbours across South-east Asia.

The country’s economy expanded by a tepid 1.2 per cent last quarter as rounds of political instability and border violence sap confidence. Severe flooding in the south and US tariffs are expected to weigh further on growth.

The progressive People’s Party is the

successor to a previous political grouping

that won the 2023 general election only to be blocked from power and later dissolved over its campaign to amend Thailand’s controversial royal defamation law. Bloomberg