The humiliation of Thailand’s regime is a boost for Asian democracy

Rigging Thai ballots keeps getting harder. The first time the country’s army-backed regime deigned to hold an election, in 2019, it took an outrageous gerrymander, a stacked electoral system and the mass disqualification of its democratic opponents to prevent them, narrowly, from winning a majority. On May 14th, despite facing many of the same obstacles, Thailand’s pro-democracy parties could not be denied. They of Prayuth Chan-ocha, a former army chief who seized power in 2014, winning 313 of the 500 seats available. Pro-military parties—despite their unfair advantages—won only 76.Worse for the generals and the royalist establishment in cahoots with them, their attempts to suppress Thailand’s democracy are radicalising it. The big winner was not, as predicted, the party of Thaksin Shinawatra, an exiled former prime minister, whose supporters had come first in every Thai election since 2001. It was a newer and more uncompromising liberal force. Pushing back against years of democratic retreat in Asia, Move Forward, as it is called, looks like the generals’ nemesis.