PUBLISHED : 22 Jan 2026 at 05:01
Piyabutr Saengkanokkul, secretary-general of the Progressive Movement, speaks to People’s Party supporters at a campaign rally in Loei on Wednesday. People’s Party
Piyabutr Saengkanokkul, a campaign assistant for the People’s Party (PP), has urged voters to deliver more than 20 million votes to the party, saying a decisive mandate was needed to form a government and rewrite the constitution.
Speaking at the Chaiyaphum municipal ground, the former secretary-general of the now-dissolved Future Forward Party was campaigning for the PP ahead of the Feb 8 election. He said pro-democracy parties – first the Future Forward Party and later the Move Forward Party – had been dissolved twice, with many of their politicians disqualified, but the movement woul…
PUBLISHED : 22 Jan 2026 at 05:01
Piyabutr Saengkanokkul, secretary-general of the Progressive Movement, speaks to People’s Party supporters at a campaign rally in Loei on Wednesday. People’s Party
Piyabutr Saengkanokkul, a campaign assistant for the People’s Party (PP), has urged voters to deliver more than 20 million votes to the party, saying a decisive mandate was needed to form a government and rewrite the constitution.
Speaking at the Chaiyaphum municipal ground, the former secretary-general of the now-dissolved Future Forward Party was campaigning for the PP ahead of the Feb 8 election. He said pro-democracy parties – first the Future Forward Party and later the Move Forward Party – had been dissolved twice, with many of their politicians disqualified, but the movement would continue.
"We [the Move Forward Party] won the election [in 2023] but were not allowed to form a government. Are we discouraged? No," he said. "We move forward because we believe people want change and Thailand can do better."
Mr Piyabutr criticised established parties for repeating campaign pledges despite having previously held power.
"Every party can promise good policies," he said, citing land reform and efforts to tackle online scams and drug problems. "But the question is: when you were in government in 2019 and 2023, what were you doing? Did you only just think of solutions today?"
He argued that long-serving political groups had failed to improve livelihoods. "If they could really change things, people’s lives would have improved long ago," he said.
Mr Piyabutr called on voters to pursue what he described as "three changes". The first was "changing MPs", urging voters to elect representatives who understood public hardships, were free of business interests, and were accountable only to the people.
The second was "changing the government". He warned against splitting votes, saying opponents feared genuine reform.
"This time, winning some seats is not enough. We must come first," he said. "We need more than 250 MPs and more than 20 million votes so no one can block a people’s government."
The third change was constitutional reform.