Thailand Election 2026: Pheu Thai and Shinawatra family face test to recapture populist power

For more than two decades, the Shinawatra family has defined Thai electoral politics. Will their Pheu Thai Party continue to hold sway as voters cast their ballots on Sunday (Feb 8)?

BANGKOK: It is a Sunday morning and Nid Wandee and his wife, Patchareewan, have nearly sold out of grilled chicken at a local market in the Lad Phrao area of Bangkok.

It has been a good day for the couple but a rough patch for the family.

Nid, who has been in business for more than a decade, says customers who once spent freely now buy less, while his family’s costs have kept on rising.

With the Thai economy in the doldrums, Nid, originally from Thailand’s northeast but living in Bangkok, is looking to the general election on Sunday (Feb 8) for answers. And mostly thinking back to better days.

When Thaksin Shinawatra was prime minister in the early 2000s, the populist leader won great support from rural voters and the working class, the likes of Nid.

The upcoming vote will be a test of whether the Shinawatra dynasty still has pulling power in contemporary Thailand, political experts told CNA.

Thaksin’s rise energised a generation of voters who felt, for the first time, that politics worked for them, said Napon Jatusripitak, coordinator of the Thailand Studies Programme at the ISEAS-Yusof Ishak Institute in Singapore.

“This was literally the first big change in the Thai political landscape, and it dramatically improved the living circumstances of a very broad segment of the Thai population, particularly those in the working class and rural communities,” he said.

“For the first time, Thai people felt that their votes mattered.”

Nid, 48, recalls policies like cheap 30 baht (US$1) healthcare and support for local entrepreneurs and products that made the lives of poor Thais better two decades ago.

The universal health insurance scheme was introduced in 2002 during Thaksin’s time as prime minister from 2001 to 2006. It covered more than 99.5 per cent of the Thai population, who paid 30 baht per healthcare visit at its launch, and particularly benefitted the lower-income.

Like many in his generation, Nid measures today’s politics against what he remembers before.

“Maybe my confidence has dropped a little from 100 per cent, but I still believe in Thaksin because those past policies are still in my memory. They make me feel that he was still better than other parties today,” he said.