| Parliament name (generic / translated) |
Rathasapha / National Assembly |
| Structure of parliament |
Bicameral |
| Chamber name (generic / translated) |
Wuthisapha / Senate |
| Related chamber (for bicameral parliaments) |
Saphaphuthan Ratsadon / House of Representatives
|
| BACKGROUND |
| Dates of election / renewal (from/to) |
2 March 2008 |
| Purpose of elections |
Elections were held for the first time since the September 2006 coup, for 76 of the 150 seats in the Senate. |
On 2 March 2008, four days after former prime minister Shinawatra Thaksin returned to Thailand from a 17-month exile, elections were held to fill 76 directly elected seats in the new 150-member Senate. Elections to the House of Representatives had taken place in December 2007. Those elections had been won by the People's Power Party (PPP), a new party formed by supporters of former prime minister Thaksin. It formed a six-party coalition controlling 315 of the 480 seats in the House. The newly elected House held its first session in January 2008 and elected PPP leader Samak Sundaravej as prime minister.
The last Senate elections (for 200 directly elected members) were held in April 2006, but the resulting Senate had actually never convened because of events that led to the dissolution of the House of Representatives in September 2006. The 1997 Constitution prohibited the Senate from meeting in the absence of a House of Representatives.
The new Constitution adopted in August 2007 reduced the statutory number of Senate members from 200 to 150, of whom 76 are directly elected (one from each of the 76 provinces). National and provincial committees comprising bureaucrats and judicial officials select the rest of the members.
The election of the 76 directly elected members was preceded by the selection of the 74 appointed senators which started on 2 January. On 19 February, the Election Commission announced the results of this selection process. The selected members include 14 retired soldiers or police generals and eight members of the outgoing interim legislature the National Legislative Assembly. The remainder represent various professions such as the media, health care, business and agriculture. Prime Minister Sundaravej criticized the Senate selection process as undemocratic and pledged to amend the Constitution to restore a fully elected Senate.
Although the new Senate is a non-partisan body, many candidates for the 76 directly elected seats were reportedly backed by political parties. The voting took place in relative peace, except for a bomb blast near a polling station in the southern part of the country in which three soldiers were injured. Although voting is compulsory in Thailand, only 55.62 per cent of the 44.9 million eligible voters went to the polls. Outgoing NLA Speaker Meechai Ruchuphan attributed the low turnout to the failure to publicize the vote by the Election Commission and the candidates and to voter apathy for a ballot held just three months after the House elections.
On 3 March, the Election Commission announced that it had received 34 complaints of electoral fraud, mostly related to vote buying. Twelve women were appointed and twelve were elected, bringing the total number of women to 24.
On 14 March, the new Senate held its first session, officially establishing the Thai National Assembly. It elected Mr. Prasobsuk Boondech as its new President. |
| STATISTICS |
| Voter turnout |
| Round no 1 | 2 March 2008 |
Number of registered electors
Voters
Blank or invalid ballot papers
Valid votes |
44'911'254
24'981'233 (55.62%)
914'475
24'066'758 |
|
Notes
|
|
| Distribution of votes |
|
|
| Distribution of seats |
|
|
| Distribution of seats according to sex |
Men
Women
Percent of women |
126
24
16.00%
|
| Distribution of seats according to age |
|
|
|
| Distribution of seats according to profession |
|
|
| Comments |
Source: Thai IPU Group
Note on distribution of seats according to sex:
Twelve women were elected and twelve others were appointed (01.04.2008, 04.07.2008). |
A historical Archive of past election results for this chamber can be found on a separate page