Sam Mitr (Three Allies) group, seen as the military junta’s political arm, has claimed it has a good chance to win over the former ruling Phue Thai Party in the coming election.

It also claimed that three key former Pheu Thai MPs for Chiang Mai will next week defect to the group.

Phirom Pholwiset, a coordinator of the group, said the group was confident it would win more than 7 million votes in the Northeast and the North, Pheu Thai’s long-time political strongholds.

He cited the group’s latest analysis based on the current number of former MPs it now has.

In the Northeast alone, the group expected to win more than 50 MP seats, both in the constituency and party list vote systems, he said.

He strongly believed the group would obtain at least 30,000 votes in each constituency in the Northeast.

“The election candidate line-up looks good to go now. And next week there will be big news. That is two to three former Pheu Thai MPs for Chiang Mai will defect to Sam Mitr,” he said.

He refused to elaborate on this claim, saying only that these former MPs had clearly accepted the group’s invitation for them to join it in supporting Prime Minister Prayut Chan-o-cha to return as the new prime minister after the election.

Democrat Party deputy leader Sathit Pitutecha, meanwhile, admitted that the party’s situation regarding its former MPs in the eastern provinces wasn’t very good as other parties were trying hard to persuade them to defect.

After all, he said, all four former Democrat MPs for Rayong, including him, would definitely remain with the party despite previous media reports about their dining with key figures in the Sam Mitr group recently.