Thailand's pro-army party won popular vote, opposition came second

Thailand's pro-army Palang Pracharat Party won the popular vote in Sunday's general election with 8.4 million ballots, the Election commission said Thursday as it released unofficial results of the first election since a military coup in 2014.

The main opposition pro-Thaksin Pheu Thai Party got 7.9 million votes, said Krit Urwongse, deputy secretary-general of the Election commission.

"These numbers are fully-counted results officially reported by each constituency," said Krit Urwongse, deputy secretary-general of the Election commission.

The results represented 100 percent of the ballots counted but would remain unofficial until final results are announced on May 9.

The commission has not announced the full number of seats for each party in the 500-seat House of Representatives, but results for the 350 seats of the lower house were announced Monday with Pheu Thai Party won 137 and Palang PracharathParty won 97 seats respectively.

Thanathorn Juangroongruangkit, leader of the Future Forward party (3R), speaks as Viroj Pao-in, a Pheu Thai party leader (2R), Sudarat Keyuraphan, a leader of the Pheu Thai party (4R), Phumtham Wechayacha, secretary-general of the Pheu Thai party (5R), and other members attend a news conference in Bangkok, Thailand, March 27, 2019. /VCG Photo

The opposition party later formed a "democratic front" with six other parties, claiming a majority in the lower house of the parliament.

The remaining 150 House of Representatives seats are allocated according to a complex formula involving the total number of votes for each party.

However, parties have been calculating their share of the allocated seats based on partial results, and both Palang Pracharat and Pheu Thai have claimed they have a mandate to form the next government.

(Cover: Uttama Savanayana, Palang Pracharat Party leader, holds a news conference after the general election in Bangkok, Thailand, March 27, 2019. /VCG Photo)