Bangkok gubernatorial election made a big mockery of pollsters in 2013, when they expected M.R. Sukhumbhand Paribatra to lose heavily, only for him to win his second term with the highest number of votes ever. Current popularity surveys ahead of next month’s vote, therefore, can be taken with a grain of salt.

 

However, the latest work by the Thammasat University’s Research and Consultancy Institute is interesting in many ways, not least because it covered more than 20,000 eligible voters, far more than samples of similar polls on the popularity of candidates. In each of those other polls, just over a thousand people were interviewed. The TU-RAC survey also spanned all age groups, professions, and education backgrounds.

 

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Conducted between April 15-April 22 with each Bangkok district having at least 400

representatives surveyed, it yielded some surprises and offered some insights into intertwined relations between Bangkok’s and national politics. Here are what we have learned from the poll’s results, which are significantly different from those of similar albeit lower-scale surveys:

 

1. Chadchart Sittipunt’s lead is not THAT BIG. He received about 28 percent of support, with second-place Suchatvee Suwansawat of the Democrat Party trailing at about 22 percent despite all the trouble battering Thailand’s oldest political camp. A 28 versus 22 percentage gap can be vast in elections, but Chadchart had been perceived to be enjoying a much more comfortable run, with the chasing pack being no more than “decorative” participants. [read more...]

 

Full story: https://www.thaipbsworld.com/key-points-learned-from-thammasat-poll/

 

-- © Copyright Thai PBS 2022-04-29

 

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The do-nothing, business-as-usual trough changes hands. Nothing to see here.