Thai Undergraduates’ Voting Behaviour in Provincial and National Elections

On 1 February 2025, Thailand held provincial elections for council members of the Provincial Administrative Organisations (PAO) in 76 provinces and for PAO chairman in 47 provinces. These office-holders play important parts in managing provincial governance, budgets, and public infrastructure. After a historic 75.71 per cent turnout rate for the 2023 general election (GE), this election saw a lower turnout of 58.45 per cent, with 16.3 million people exercising their rights (of nearly 28 million eligible voters). This turnout was lower than that of the previous PAO elections in December 2020, at 62.8 per cent.

In 2020-2021, there appeared to be a surge in Thai youth political engagement, such as the student-led pro-democracy movement. However, subsequent events could have affected young people’s commitment to formal politics. During the 2023 GE, the Move Forward Party (MFP) received widespread youth support but, despite being the largest party, was unable to form a coalition government. MFP was later dissolved in 2024. Additionally, the newly elected government continues to persecute youth activists while excluding many politically motivated charges that affect them from its proposed amnesty legislation.

Does the low voter turnout for the recent provincial elections mean young Thais are becoming disillusioned with voting?

To the author’s knowledge, there is no publicly available data measuring Thailand’s voter turnout by demography. The only demographic data released is that Thai “Gen X” voters (aged 40-60) comprised the largest group of eligible voters. Nevertheless, the recent Youth and Civic Engagement in Southeast Asia Survey by the ISEAS-Yusof Ishak Institute can shed some light on young voters’ behaviours, including in Thailand. The survey’s findings suggest that Thai undergraduates are still keen to exercise their rights in elections and may do so for practical and ideological reasons.

The Thai respondents of the ISEAS youth survey were undergraduates aged 18-24 years old at major universities, such as Burapha, Chiangmai, Chulalongkorn, Khon Kaen, Prince of Songkhla, Thammasat, and various Rachabhat campuses. While the participants are not representative of the broader youth population, as the survey excludes those without or not working towards university degrees, their responses still offer important insight into the political engagement of young Thai people. There were 501 Thai participants, 46 of whom were 18 years old when the survey was conducted (between August and October 2024). Most were thus eligible to vote in the 2023 GE; all respondents were eligible voters in the recent PAO elections.

The survey asked participants to report their voting frequency in different elections, with response options of “Never”, “Seldom”, “Usually”, “Always”, “Not applicable”, and “Don’t know”. Overall, 67.87 per cent of undergraduates responded that they “always” or “usually” vote in provincial elections (Figure 1) and 68.86 per cent in national elections (Figure 2). Given their young ages, an important qualification for these responses is that many respondents would have been first-time, or at most, second-time voters in such elections.

Figure 1. About Two-Thirds of Thai Undergraduates ‘Always’ or ‘Usually’ Vote

(Provincial Elections)

Figure 2. Over Two-Thirds of Thai Undergraduates ‘Always’ or ‘Usually’ Vote

(National Elections)

There is notable regional variation in undergraduate voting behaviour. While students based in Bangkok, central, eastern, and northern regions tend to participate more in national elections, the reverse is true for those from the northeast and south. For every region except Bangkok and the northeast, the number of respondents who “never” voted in national elections is higher than those who “never” voted in provincial elections. That 12.14 per cent of Bangkokian youth surveyed have “never” voted in “provincial” (or, in Bangkok’s case, gubernatorial and metropolitan council) elections — a higher percentage than their peers from other regions (ranging from 4.94 to 8.78 per cent) — suggests that disenchantment with politics may begin at a young age.

These results demonstrate that Thai undergraduates remain engaged with formal politics and exercise their rights to vote at relatively high rates, a logic which runs counter to broader trends of declining turnout in provincial elections.

While students based in Bangkok, central, eastern, and northern regions tend to participate more in national elections, the reverse is true for those from the northeast and south.

The survey findings also suggest that undergraduates in Thailand exercise their voting rights for various reasons, many of which may not be purely ideological. Political analysts point out that local personalities and interests tend to dominate local elections; voters often cast their votes for candidates who have name recognition and close community ties. Party policies and ideology are thus less important. The northeast and the south, where provincial voting was more popular than national voting, are the two poorest regions in Thailand. The latter also faces ethnic and religious insurgency, which has not been properly addressed by recent governments. It is thus reasonable that undergraduates in these two regions would prioritise local development over ideology or country-level changes.

These Thai undergraduates’ emphasis on practical results is consistent with the findings of the 2024 ISEAS youth survey on other countries, such as Malaysia and Vietnam, where young people prioritise bread-and-butter issues. Similarly, 85.8 per cent of Thai respondents indicated that they are concerned about unemployment and economic recession, and 84.6 per cent about widening socio-economic inequality. Many undergraduates may find provincial politicians to be more accessible and more attuned to local economic and social concerns than Members of Parliament in Bangkok. This can also motivate them to exercise their rights in provincial elections but not national ones.  

Overall, Thai undergraduates do not seem to be disillusioned with voting at the provincial and national levels, with roughly two-thirds regularly exercising their voting rights. Their behaviour suggests they have practical and ideological motivations for voting. While this combination indicates politically engaged undergraduate students, it dispels the myth of an overly idealistic faction of young voters who prioritise sweeping nationwide changes instead of small-scale localised improvements.

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