Why the election is more crucial than ever

One of the factors cited by the European Union’s Foreign Affairs Council in restoring full political contacts with Thailand is that the country is expected to hold a general election in November 2018. That was the pledge made by Prime Minister Prayut Chan-o-cha during his recent visit to the US, signalling to the international community Thailand’s readiness to return to democratic governance four years after the 2014 coup d’etat.
The international community will be closely monitoring further development in this country leading up to the polls in late 2018 – something that Prayut, in his capacity as head of the National Council for Peace and Order (NCPO), will have to carefully manage to maintain foreign confidence and support.
Over the past three years, Thailand has successfully restored law and order in the wake of unprecedented national divisiveness just before the coup. Asia’s political and economic powerhouses, led by China and Japan, were among the first major countries expressing support for the military-led government. The US and EU, on the other hand, downgraded their relations with Thailand after the coup.
However, Thai-US relations have improved considerably since Donald Trump was elected in the US. The new president hosted Prayut at the White House this past autumn. The outlook is positive – as long as Thailand sticks to its roadmap to return to democracy as announced earlier.
On the economic front, the country bounced back to a higher growth rate of nearly 4 per cent per annum in the third quarter of this year, after years of lacklustre performance, even though a more even distribution of wealth is needed to tackle chronic economic inequality.
The Prayut government has also launched the ambitious Eastern Economic Corridor mega-development programme, which will usher in a new era of higher-technology industries in three provinces along the eastern seaboard over the next two decades. This will help make Thailand competitive in the era of digital economy and society.
In addition, the International Civil Aviation Organisation recently removed its red-flag warning on the safety of Thailand’s aviation sector. This resulted from a wide range of efforts aimed at overhauling the regulatory system to ensure the safety of foreign travellers. The Thai fisheries sector also has adopted multiple regulatory and other measures to tackle over-fishing, human trafficking and related issues after the EU issued a yellow-card warning to Thailand about three years ago. The country’s status regarding this Illegal, Unregulated and Unreported fisheries issue will likely improve, with the EU expected to remove its warning shortly.
In general, the majority of the population is considered satisfied with the military’s efforts in restoring peace as well as political and economic order, but the country cannot go on like this forever. The NCPO roadmap to return democracy, as announced by Prayut, is therefore a crucial blueprint for longer-term national development and revival. One of the most important items on that timetable is the 
government organising the 
general election within an 
appropriate period. Any attempt to further postpone the polls without a good cause will inevitably 
jeopardise the country’s creditability internationally and risk hurting many achievements overseen by the NCPO and Prayut.