Political Communication in Phayao’s General Election 2019 under Thailand’s 2017 Constitution

Abstract

     This article aims to discuss 2019 general election situation and political communication between the electoral candidates/their teams of canvassers vis-a-vis the electorate under the 2017 Constitution and its prescribed mixed member apportionment (MMA) system. The research employed quantitative and qualitative methodology. It covered the period from the announcement of the Election Royal Decree 2019 (January 23, 2019) till the Election Day (March 24, 2019).

     The findings are as follow. 1) Regarding the situation of the general election in Phayao,the political momentum swung to new political parties such as Palang Pracharat Party (PPRP) and Future Forward Party (FFP). There were 85 candidates, which was the highest number of any Thai election. This is possibly due to the MMA system that is designed to include the number of votes on the party list in the calculation of number of MPs. 2) Political communication was multi-directional by means of open and confidential messages. Regarding the candidates, they analyzed and designed messages and media to reach voters according to age groups and occupations. As for the voters, their ways to receive and send messages varied greatly among different age groups. It is evident that those within the range of 18-22 and of 23-36 were receptive to the campaign strategy of the choice of prime minister. Those within the age groups of 36-59 and over 60, however, were of a different inclination. The latter gave more weight the traits of individual candidates. The main reason could be attributed to their past experiences, namely, to have MP of their own choice would answer to their local needs better than the propagators of national party policies. Furthermore, this also conveniently benefited big parties with ample financial resources, as they could better afford the local candidates’ political communication campaigns. Moreover, the delay in the official campaign period led to the rally on individual candidates all the same and not on party policies yet to be approved by the EC. Consequently, this practice was conducive to vote-buying ingrained in the patronage system.