U.S. Edition
Search
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
THAILAND
COUNTRY Kingdom of Thailand
ELECTION TYPE Parliamentary (House of Representatives)
DATE April 2, 2006
At stake in this election:
  • 500 seats in the House of Representatives (Sapha Phuthaen Ratsadon)
Description of government structure:
  • Chief of State: King BHUMIBOL Adulyadej
  • Head of Government: Prime Minister THAKSIN Shinawatra
  • Assembly: Thailand has a bicameral National Assembly (Rathasapha) consisting of the Senate (Wuthisapha) with 200 seats and the House of Representatives (Sapha Phuthaen Ratsadon) with 500 seats.
Description of electoral system:
  • The monarchy is hereditary.
  • In the Senate (Wuthisapha), 200 members are elected by popular vote to serve six-year terms. In the House of Representatives (Sapha Phuthaen Ratsadon), 400 members are elected on a single-member constituency basis and 100 members are elected through party-list proportional representation; all serve four-year terms.
Main parties in the parliamentary race:
  • Party: Thai Rak Thai Party (TRT)
    Leader: THAKSIN Shinawatra
    Seats won in last election: 376
Note: On February 27, Thailand’s main opposition parties – the Democrat Party (Phak Prachatipat - PP), the Thai Nation Party (Phak Chart Thai - PCT) and the People’s Party (Mahachon Party - MP) - announced that they would not field any candidate in the April 2 election. They had demanded political reforms, demands that Prime Minister THAKSIN did not accept.
When was the last election for the House of Representatives?
  • The last election for the House of Representatives was held on February 6, 2005.
Population and number of registered voters:
  • Population: 62,418,054 (December 31, 2005)
  • Number of registered voters: 45,232,145 (April 2, 2006)
Of interest:
  • Prime Minister THAKSIN called snap elections after thousands of protesters rallied in February to ask for his resignation following a controversial sale of his family’ s telecom conglomerate Shin Corp to Singaporean investors. His critics claim that sale was engineered so that Prime Minister THAKSIN’s family avoided paying capital gains tax.


  • Elections for the Senate will also be held on April 19. Political parties are not allowed to run for seats in the Senate.
SOURCE: INTERNATIONAL FOUNDATION FOR ELECTION SYSTEMS (IFES)
FOR ADDITIONAL INFORMATION: IFES ELECTIONGUIDE ONLINEexternal link
CNN U.S.
CNN TV E-mail Services CNN Mobile CNNAvantGo Ad Info About Us Preferences
Search
© 2007 Cable News Network LP, LLLP.
A Time Warner Company. All Rights Reserved.
Terms under which this service is provided to you.
Read our privacy guidelines. Contact us. Site Map.
Offsite Icon External sites open in new window; not endorsed by CNN.com
Pipeline Icon Pay service with live and archived video. Learn more
Radio News Icon Download audio news  |  RSS Feed Add RSS headlines