Reformists Up Against Military Senate After Thai Election Win

Opposition parties in Thailand have achieved what some have called a sensational win in the country's election held yesterday. The Move Forward Party and Pheu Thai of the reformist opposition will be the two biggest parties in the Thai House of Representatives, according to preliminary election results at around 99 percent of the vote counted. Together, the parties will take up 292 out of 500 seats in the body, according to results by the Thai Election Commission converted by Reuters.

However, this doesn't guarantee that the reformists can form a government and elect a prime minister, as the Thai legislature also has 250 seats in a military-appointed Senate that count towards this decision. Together with the seats of two parties from the so-called royalist-military spectrum, loyalists of the monarchy and the military count 326 seats. This leaves 132 seats that are not yet aligned. 71 of these seats are going to the Bhumjaithai party, which is currently in a coalition with the royalist-military bloc.

As Al Jazeera reports, the youth-led Move Forward Party brought in its big win on a platform of reforming the country's monarchy and reducing the power of the military - which rewrote the constitution after a coup in 2014 to include the military-appointed Senate. The turnout on election day exceeded expectations. Yet, because of the difficult coalition talks ahead, it could be weeks until a new government is formed.