A majority of people still want to see election campaigns highlighting populist policies with emphasis on solving economic issues, according to the result of an opinion survey by Bangkok University or Bangkok Poll. The poll was conducted on Sept 6-7 on 1,156 people aged 18 and over of various levels of education and occupations throughout the country. Asked whether they think the past political campaigns which emphasised populist policies were suitable, a majority or 59.9% said "no" because as such policies benefited only some groups of people; 32.4% said "yes" reasoning that they helped improved the livelihood of the people, and, 7.7% were uncertain. However, when asked whether they still want to see populist policies being used in future election campaigns, 64.2% said "yes" on the conditions that the policies should be used constructively for solving economic problems, shoring up farm prices and improving education; 31.6% said "no"; and, 4.2% were uncertain. Asked who would they they elect as prime minister if today is the election day, 26.6% said they would vote for Gen Prayut Chan-o-cha; 3.8% for Yingluck Shinawatra; and, 3.7% for Abhisit Vejjajiva.

Source: Bangkok Post September 11, 2016 03:22 UTC