Thailand's liberal opposition tops polls as election looms

Thailand's progressive opposition People's Party and its leader are most favoured among voters for next month's general election, two surveys showed, underlining the stiff challenge facing Prime Minister Anutin Charnvirakul's bid to stay in power.

Thailand's February 8 election could usher in a new round of turmoil in Thailand, and will be a showdown between the anti-establishment People's Party, Anutin's conservative Bhumjaithai and the former ruling party Pheu Thai, with bitter histories of betrayal that could complicate efforts to form a government.

The People's Party was backed by 34.2% of respondents in a January 6-9 poll by Suan Dusit released on Sunday, with Bhumjaithai second on 16.2% and the once-dominant Pheu Thai on 16.0%.

People's Party head and opposition leader Natthaphong Ruengpanyawut was the top choice for prime minister among 32% of the 2,682 people surveyed, followed by Pheu Thai's Yodchanan Wongsawat on 17.4% and Anutin third on 15.1%.

With huge support among young and urban Thais for its bold reform agenda, the People's Party's predecessor Move Forward won the most votes in the 2023 election but was blocked from power by lawmakers allied with the royalist military.

Move Forward was later dissolved by a court, one of a series of dramatic twists in an unrelenting cycle of upheaval that has seen three Thai premiers in less than three years.

Anutin called a snap election on December 12 after less than 100 days in office during a turbulent parliamentary session that could have led to a no-confidence vote and the collapse of his fragile minority government. It came also as Thailand's military was embroiled in a fierce three-week border conflict with Cambodia.

A poll released on Sunday by the National Institute for Development Administration also showed Natthaphong as the top choice for premier, backed by 24.7% of the people surveyed, followed closely by Anutin with 20.8% and Yodchanan fifth on 9.6%.

NIDA's January 5-8 survey of 2,500 people showed the People's Party as the most popular with about 30.5% of support, followed by Bhumjaithai at 22.3%.

The billionaire Shinawatra family's Pheu Thai was third, picked by 15.4% of respondents, indicating declining support for the populist outfit following the collapse of its government in September after Paetongtarn Shinawatra'ssacking by a court and the jailing its influential founder, Thaksin Shinawatra.

-Panarat Thepgumpanat, Chayut Setboonsarng and Martin Petty/Reuters