Political Space of Ethnic Groups in National Election

Abstract

Politics in national election involves power and benefits. Different strategies are utilized by politicians and political parties to compete for gaining votes from voters and win over other competitors, aiming for achieving essential positions in the government, power, and benefits. Therefore, it is difficult for grassroot peoples who are marginal groups to enter national political affairs. However, ethnic politicians have played evident roles in the national elections in 2019 and 2023. This article presents the historical development and essential roles of ethnic politicians at a national level. The author found that ethnic groups who were considered marginal in the Thai society have created political space in the national political affairs, by becoming political contenders in both local constituencies and party-list candidates for different political parties. The two recent national elections in Thailand have shown that the process of becoming members of political parties and competition for getting elected were not smooth. Among the ethnic politicians, political affairs entailed fragmentation of ethnic political runners to side with different parties and competed against one another. However, a few ethnic politicians got elected to create political space in the national parliament, due to the popularity of the Moving Forward Party. Information presented in this article were collected from the following of ethnic politicians’ movements in social media, observation, and formal and informal interviews before, during and after both elections.