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Conclusion

1. Sakeaw Province has shown a political phenomenon of party switching and change

in political power. In Sakaew Province, the Thienthong family is a well-known political family that
has built power and political prestige for a long time. Mr. Thanit Thienthong and Miss Treenuch

Thienthong are the nephew and niece of veteran political figure Sanoh Thienthong, and have always
worked for their uncle and in the past were to parliament as Pheu Thai Party representatives in

Sakaew Province. The Palang Pracharat Party, created to be the electoral vehicle to succeed
the National Council for Peace and Order, recruited many former politicians including Mr. Thanit

and Miss Treenuch. Their decision to join Palang Pracharat caused significant problems between
people in the Thienthong family. One factor in their decision is that they thought the new party had

tremendous power and would form the next government, so Mr. Thanit and Miss Treecuh joined
to defend their interests by retaining their political benefits in Sakeaw as MPs of the government

party and to protect their own business benefits. The election outcome showed that in Sakeaw
Province, Constituency 1, Mr. Thanit Thienthong, running under Palang Pracharath Party after

switching from Pheu Thai Party, won the constituency with the highest vote total, followed by
Mr. Sonthidate Thienthong, another nephew of Sanoh, who ran under Pheu Thai Party.

In Constituency 2, former Pheu Thai Party MP Miss Treenuch Thienthong, who ran under Palang
Pracharath Party, won the election, followed by Pol. Col. Payap Thongcheun, a former senator

for Sakeaw who is close to Sanoh.

For Constituency 3, the election was won by the Palang Pracharath Party candidate
Mr. Surasak Chingnawan. Mr. Surasak is a contractor and executive of Dej Thai Market
(Rong Klua Market), and is a former member and vice chairman of the Aranyaprathet Sub-district

municipal council as well as a former member of Sakeaw PAO Council. Former MP for the area

Mr. Sorawong Thienthong, son of Sanoh and candidate for Phue Thai Party, got the second-
highest number of votes. Therefore, Palang Pracharath took all three constituencies of Sakeaw
Province while Pheu Thai Party, supported by the elder figure of the province’s dominant political

family, took second place. Then we can conclude that obviously, there was change in political

power in Sakeaw.