The Thai parliamentary elections of 1992

Abstract

The Thai general elections of 22 March and 13 September 1992 hold special significance because of three features: military leaders co-opted political parties into supporting their bid for greater involvement in politics, the Prime Minister created an independent election monitoring body, and the politicians laid a seemingly clear choice before the electorate on both occasions of pro-military or pro-democracy parties. However, these three developments do not represent a basic change in Thai electoral politics but simply make 1992 an atypical year. From the end of the absolute monarchy in 1932 until 1978, Thailand had a series of military governments and short-term democratic experiments that were followed by over ten years of mostly stable civilian government (1978–1991). During that ten year period, democratization progressed as four parliamentary elections were held, Parliament was revitalized, the press reported more freely, and the first elected civilian prime minister in over twelve years was appointed in 1988. The 1991 coup, however, placed the future of democratization in doubt. Nevertheless, the two parliamentary elections held in 1992 signify the formal and substantive return of power to elected politicians and a resumption of the process of democratisation.