The Progressive Movement’s candidate won Samut Prakan’s Dan Samrong sub-district’s mayoral by-election yesterday (Sunday) in the unofficial count, beating the runner up by more than 2,000 votes.
The candidate, Paisan Weerachartwattana, will succeed his uncle Sompong, who died earlier.
After learning the unofficial result, the mayor-elect thanked voters in the sub-district for having faith in him and his Progressive Movement, which emerged out of the dissolution of the Future Forward party and political ban imposed on the party’s executive.
He vowed to carry on the unfinished projects of his late predecessor, such as the waste water treatment, garbage collection, street lighting and public safety projects.
Thanathorn Juangroongruangkit, president of the Progressive Movement and former leader of the disbanded Future Forward Party, offered his congratulations to Paisarn in a video call last night.
Although banned from politics for ten years, Thanathorn has been working actively behind the scenes to get members of his Progressive Movement engaged in local-level politics,such as in sub-district council and mayoral elections, to gain a foothold in local politics, while leaving the Move Forward Party, the successor of the dissolved Future Forward Party, to concentrate on national politics.
The core government party, the Palang Pracharath, dominates national politics in Samut Prakan, controlling all seven MP seats there through the influential Asavahame family, whose patriarch, Vatana, is currently living in exile.
