[20190312]IN11071_泰国将举行期待已久的选举.pdf

CRS INSIGHT Prepared for Members and Committees of Congress INSIGHTINSIGHTi i Thailand Set to Hold Long-Awaited Election Kirt Smith Research Assistant March 12, 2019 Nearly five years after the Royal Thai Army seized power in a coup dtat in 2014, the Kingdom of Thailand is officially set to hold nationwide parliamentary elections on March 24, 2019 (see Figure 1). While the announcement comes as welcome news to many Thais, new elections may reignite political tensions and uncertainties that have been suppressed for the last four years under military rule. Thailand, a U.S. treaty ally, had emerged from the upheaval of the 1998 Asian Financial Crisis with a strongly democratic constitution and newly independent national institutions. However, political tensions between competing forces including the military, the monarchy, and a populist politician have exposed the weakness of the countrys democratic institutions, resulting in a series of weak governments paralyzed by street demonstrations around Bangkok and ultimately overthrown by military coups in 2006 and 2014 that have shaken the bilateral alliance with the United States. An Erratic Past and Uncertain Future On May 22, 2014, Thai