Chadchart Sittipunt, the governor of Thailand’s capital, Bangkok, has won re-election after the city’s residents overwhelmingly backed him for a second term in an election yesterday.
According to vote counts reported by Thai PBS, Chadchart won 1.44 million votes or 68 percent of the vote, with 95 percent of the votes counted. This put him well ahead of his main rivals, independent Mallika Boonmeetrakul Mahasuk (288,000 votes, or 13 percent of the total), Chaiwat Sathawornwichit of the People’s Party (177,000 votes), and Democrat candidate Anucha Burapachaisri (102,000 votes).
As the Bangkok Post reported, Chadchart’s total set a new record for a winning Bangkok governor candidate, surpassing his own record of 1.39 million votes, set during his initial election in 2022. Just short of half of the 4.4 million eligible voters turned out to cast a ballot yesterday.
Chadchart, an engineer and former transport minister in the Pheu Thai party-led government that was ousted by a military coup in 2014, will now return to the governorship for another four years, pending official confirmation by the Election Commission.
Following his victory, the 60-year-old said that it was time to “work, work, work.”
