Most Thais outside Bangkok want direct elections for governor: poll

The poll was conducted on May 2-4 by telephone interviews with 1,316 people in provinces outside the capital, reports Bangkok Post. The results were released on May 8.

Currently, the head of the Bangkok Metropolitan Administration is the only popularly-elected provincial governor in the country, with governors in ever other province appointed by the Interior Ministry.

Asked whether all provincial governors should be elected, the replies varied as follows:

• 33.97% said an elected governor can better respond to the needs of the people;
• 20.14% said all governors should be elected;
• 19.15% said the candidates are selling their dreams, which may fail to materialise;
• 13.07% were interested in the policies outlined by the candidates;
• 8.59% said appointed governors are also capable of performing their duties;
• 8.36% said the Bangkok governor election helps strengthen democracy;
• 7.67% said they envy Bangkok people who can elect their own governor;
• 6.91% were afraid elected governors in other provinces might represent groups of influential people;
• 5.09% said since other provinces already have elected provincial administration organisation (PAO) chairmen, gubernatorial elections are not necessary; and
• 1.75% said that in other provinces, electing governors might cause division in society.

Asked whether they are ready to hold elections for governors immediately,

• 47.87% said "yes", definitely;
• 28.80% said "yes", probably;
• 11.25% said "no", not at all;
• 10.56% said "probably not";
• 1.52% had no comment.

Of the respondents, 28.65% were in central Thailand, 19.75% the North, 36.78% the Northeast and 14.82% the South.

An earlier poll conducted by Nida on April 18-20 brought similar results. Asked whether they want to be able to elect their governors, Thai from provinces outside of Bangkok gave the following answers:

• 66.14% said "yes", very much;
• 18.64% said "yes", moderately;
• 10.07% said "no", definitely;
• 3.79% said "no", not particularly;
• 1.36% were not interested.

Asked whether they thought elected governors would be different from appointed governors in terms of their contributions to the development of the provinces, their answers were:

• 57.80% said "yes", very differrent;
• 27.05% said "yes", fairly different;
• 8.71% believed they would not make any difference;
• 5.91% believed they would make only a little difference;
• 0.53% were uncertain.