Organizer: ISEAS – Yusof Ishak Institute
Type/Location: Hybrid / Singapore
Description:
Thailand’s 2026 General Election delivered results that defy easy explanation. Against a backdrop of widespread electoral irregularities, Bhumjaithai became the first openly pro-conservative party to win the most seats, propelled by a convergence of conservative-technocratic-nationalist appeal, entrenched baan yai networks, and state machinery. The progressive People’s Party fell short of its predecessor’s 2023 performance, its support increasingly concentrated in urban constituencies—particularly Bangkok, where it swept all seats. Pheu Thai dropped to a distant third, losing ground even in its northern Shinawatra strongholds. The Democrat Party survived, military-backed parties collapsed, and Klatham surged unexpectedly amid speculation over money politics and alleged ties to gray capital. This seminar examines what these outcomes mean for the political landscape, government formation, coalitional politics, and, more broadly, Thailand’s democratic trajectory.
Click here for program details.
About the Speakers:
Dr. Duncan McCargo is President’s Chair Professor of Global Affairs at Nanyang Technological University, where he works primarily on the comparative politics of Southeast Asia, especially Thailand. He is also an Associate Senior Fellow in the ISEAS Thailand Studies Program and a Co-Founder of the New York Southeast Asia Network. Duncan has published a dozen books, and over a hundred articles and chapters, including Future Forward: The Rise and Fall of a Thai Political Party (NIAS 2020). He is currently working on a new book about the politics of generational contestation in Thailand.
Dr. Punchada Sirivunnabood is Dean and Professor in the Faculty of Humanities and Social Sciences at Mahidol University. She previously served as a Visiting Fellow at the ISEAS-Yusof Ishak Institute. Her research focuses on political parties, elections, and the politics of Indonesia and Thailand. She has published extensively on Thai elections and is a frequent commentator on Thai politics for international media outlets.
Dr. Kanokrat Lertchoosakul is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Government, Faculty of Political Science, Chulalongkorn University. Over the past two decades, her research has focused on social movements and contentious politics in Thailand and Southeast Asia, with a particular emphasis on student and youth activism, conservative mass movements, and their entanglements with electoral politics and democratisation. Her PhD thesis at the London School of Economics and Political Science, The Rise of the Octobrists: Power and Conflict among Former Left-Wing Student Activists in Contemporary Thai Politics, received an award from Thailand’s National Research Committee in 2016 and was subsequently published by Yale University and Silkworm Books. Her recent work examines the 2020–2021 youth movement and the ways in which new generations of activists are reshaping Thailand’s political landscape and unfinished democracy.
Dr. Janjira Sombatpoonsiri is a social scientist whose work examines how authoritarian power adapts in the digital age and how civic actors respond. She is a Research Fellow at the German Institute for Global and Area Studies (GIGA) in Hamburg and a full-time research professor at Chulalongkorn University’s Institute of Asian Studies in Bangkok. Her research spans protest movements, civil society and civic space, digital repression, disinformation lawfare, and influence operations across Southeast Asia. She currently leads several international research projects on democratic resilience and information integrity. Janjira’s writings appear widely in academic and policy outlets. Her forthcoming book is Death by a Thousand Cuts: Digital Repression and Democracy in Thailand published by University of Wisconsin Press).
Dr. Jacob Ricks is Associate Professor of Political Science in the School of Social Sciences at Singapore Management University. Jacob specializes in politics and development in Southeast Asia, with a special emphasis on Thailand and Indonesia. His work has been published in the journals World Development, World Politics, Political Behavior, Pacific Affairs, and Journal of Contemporary Asia, among others. He is also co-author of Ethnicity and Politics in Southeast Asia in the Elements in Politics and Society in Southeast Asia series published by Cambridge University Press.
Dr. Napon Jatusripitak is a political scientist specializing in politics in Thailand and Southeast Asia. He is currently a Visiting Fellow and Coordinator of the Thailand Studies Programme at the ISEAS-Yusof Ishak Institute in Singapore. He is also the Managing Director of the Bangkok-based Thailand Future Institute and Director of its Center for Politics and Geopolitics. His research lies at the intersection of democratization, elite politics, patronage, and clientelism, with a particular focus on how politicians compete for power by distributing money, favors, and privileged access to government resources in exchange for electoral support.
Registration:
To attend the event in person, please register here.
To attend the event virtually, please register here.