Bangkokians pick Sukhumbhand as new governor
Bangkok City Hall
More than 900,000 eligible voters in Bangkok today elected M.R.Sukhumbhand Paribatra of Democrat Party to become the governor of Thailand’s capital city.
The Bangkok governor election was organised by the Election Commission (EC) to replace Apirak Kosayodhin, also from Democrat Party, whom had been re-elected for his second four-year term last October but decided to resign a month later after the National Counter Corruption Commission announced to press charges against Apirak and 10 other persons implicated in alleged irregularities in Bangkok Metropolitan Administration’s fire truck and boat purchase scheme.
According to the ballot counting at Bangkok City Hall a little later after midnight, M.R. Sukhumbhand, former deputy minister of foreign affairs, won a total of 934,602 votes while actor-turn-politician Yuranan Pamornmontri of the opposition Puea Thai Party came second with 611,669 votes, news anchorman and talk show host M.L.Nattakorn Devakula, who is the 32-year-old son of former Bank of Thailand governor and finance minister M.R. Pridiyathorn Devakula, third with 334,846 votes and Kaewsun Atibhodhi, former secretary of the now disbanded Assets Examination Committee, fourth with 144,749 votes.
Both M.L.Nattakorn and Kaewsun contested in the election as independents, without support from any political party.
However, the official results of today’s Bangkok governor election will be announced by the Election Commission on Monday.
In today’s governor election, Bangkok has 4.15 eligible voters but only 51.1 percent have turned out.
Bangkok is the world’s 22nd largest city by population with approximately 8,160,522 registered residents as of July 2007 but it is believed to have a huge population of about 16 million due to unregistered influxes of migrants from all regions of Thailand and from several neighbouring countries.
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