BANGKOK, Feb 8 — Coalition negotiations are expected to follow today’s general election in Thailand, with no party forecast to secure an overall majority.

AFP looks at the top prime ministerial candidates from the three leading parties.

The tech progressive 

Head of the progressive People’s Party, entrepreneur Natthaphong Ruengpanyawut says on LinkedIn that his dreams include “making innovation for better humanity” and building a tech firm that might one day be called the Google of Thailand.

The People’s Party is the clear front-runner according to opinion polls, but reformists are anathema to conservative forces in Thailand, which has a long history of military coups and judicial bans on prime ministers and parties. It has been dissolved twice before.

Natthaphong, 38, a former executive at a cloud services provider, still has accusations hanging over him for supporting changes to Thailand’s strict royal insult law, which could see him banned from politics.

Thailand’s constitutional court dissolved the People’s Party predecessor, Move Forward, in 2024, ruling its pledge to reform the lese-majeste law amounted to an attempt to overthrow the constitutional monarchy.

The selfie-snapping Natthaphong has said his party would push for limits to the powers of unelected institutions, including removing the constitutional court’s ability to disband parties or oust prime ministers.

The pilot and heir 

Incumbent Prime Minister Anutin Charnvirakul, a hobby pilot and the heir to a construction fortune, is widely expected to retain his post, regardless of the election result.

His Bhumjaithai party came third in the previous election, but the 59-year-old—who championed Thailand’s decriminalisation of cannabis—became prime minister in September after his two predecessors were ousted by the courts.

Analysts expect Anutin, bolstered by nationalist sentiment following last year’s border conflict with Cambodia, to emerge at the helm of the next coalition government.

Anutin’s family construction firm has secured lucrative government contracts over the decades, including for Bangkok’s main airport and the parliament building.

Despite his wealth, he styles himself as a man of the people, appearing on social media wearing a T-shirt and shorts while stir-frying with a wok, or performing 1980s Thai pop on the saxophone or piano.

He has also used his private planes to deliver donated organs to hospitals for transplants.

The dynastic professor 

Yodchanan Wongsawat, a biomedical engineering professor at one of Thailand’s top universities, is next in line in the populist political dynasty begun by his uncle, former prime minister and telecoms billionaire Thaksin Shinawatra.

The 46-year-old academic has never held political office, although he stood for parliament more than a decade ago in an election nullified by the courts.

As well as Thaksin, who is serving a prison sentence for corruption, three other members of the family have held Thailand’s premiership, including Yodchanan’s father Somchai Wongsawat.

Yodchanan received his PhD in electrical engineering from the University of Texas at Arlington and teaches at Mahidol University outside Bangkok.

According to his CV, he holds patents for several medical devices, including a “brain-based sleep alarm system” and a “brain-controlled wheelchair”. — AFP