Chadchart cruises to second term as Bangkok governor

Chadchart Sittipunt cruised to a second four-year term as Bangkok governor, securing about 1.44 million votes in Sunday's gubernatorial election and eclipsing his previous record of 1.38 million votes, set when he was first elected in 2022, according to Thai PBS's real-time vote count.

With 94 per cent of the votes counted, he comfortably defeated runner-up Mallika Boonmeetrakool Mahasook, who received 288,171 votes.

He won all 50 districts of Bangkok, repeating his clean sweep from the 2022 election.

The next four years will be his final term as Bangkok governor, as the law limits the office to two consecutive four-year terms.

Chadchart meanwhile thanked voters for returning him to office for a second term, saying the result was "a mandate from the people" rather than a personal victory.

He said his second term would be more challenging than the first because Bangkok residents now had higher expectations and the city faced new challenges stemming from the changing global situation.

The governor-elect said his immediate priority would be to turn his 250 campaign policies into a strategic action plan, set implementation priorities and address public concerns, including transparency and corruption.

He added that he would meet his team on Monday to formulate action plans for each strategy and the capital's 50 districts.

Voter turnout was about 50 per cent of the capital's 4.4 million eligible voters, compared with 60.7 per cent in the 2022 gubernatorial election.

For the Bangkok Metropolitan Council, People’s Party candidates won 22 seats, followed by the Working Group with 11, the Democrat Party with 8 and other groups with 9.

Chadchart won his first term as governor with a record-breaking 1.38 million votes, the highest number ever recorded in a Bangkok gubernatorial election at the time.

During his four-year term, Chadchart received mixed reviews. He earned praise for improving the efficiency and visibility of the city administration, but faced criticism over long-standing problems that remained unresolved, including flooding, traffic congestion and waste management.

A former transport minister, Chadchart served in the government of Yingluck Shinawatra from 2012 to 2014 after briefly holding the post of deputy transport minister in 2012.

Before entering national politics, he built a career as an engineer and academic, serving as a lecturer and assistant rector at Chulalongkorn University.

Chadchart holds engineering degrees from Chulalongkorn University, as well as a master's degree from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and a doctorate in civil engineering from the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign.

Voters cast their ballots from 8am to 5pm to elect both the Bangkok governor and members of the Bangkok Metropolitan Council.