Pita Limjaroenrat: Leading Thailand's political earthquake
BANGKOK: Few tipped him seriously as a likely prime minister, but Thai opposition leader Pita Limjaroenrat looks set to play a major role after voters rejected almost a decade of army-backed rule.
With most of the votes from Sunday's polls counted, Pita's radical Move Forward Party was leading the popular vote ahead of the more established opposition Pheu Thai party.
This represents an extraordinary achievement for a party whose forerunner was dissolved and its leader banned from politics.
The photogenic 42-year-old Pita has been a dynamic presence on the campaign trail, capitalising on his youth and energy to reach voters disillusioned and yearning for change after eight years of dour military-backed government.
"We will together rewrite Thai political history. Vote Move Forward, Thailand changes," he told ecstatic supporters at MFP's last rally in Bangkok on Friday.
The election is the first since major youth-led pro-democracy protests erupted across Bangkok in 2020 with demands to curb the power and spending of Thailand's king - breaching a long-held taboo on questioning the monarchy.
https://www.channelnewsasia.com/asia/pita-limjaroenrat-leading-thailands-political-earthquake-3488261
