Poll: 80% of Thais want PM Paetongtarn to quit or dissolve House
Nida conducted the phone survey on 1,310 people sampled nationwide from July 4 to 7. Of the respondents, 42.37% of wanted Ms Paetongtarn to resign so that the nation would have a new prime minister.
Meanwhile, 39.92% of respondents called on her to dissolve the House of Representatives to pave the way for a fresh general election and 0.99% wanted to see a coup d'etat.
On the contrary, 15.04% of respondents wanted Ms Paetongtarn to continue with her national administration. The rest, 0.31% of respondents, did not give an answer.
When asked who among existing prime ministerial candidates should replace Ms Paetongtarn as the prime minister, the biggest group of respondents, 32.82%, favoured Gen Prayut Chan-o-cha, who is a privy councillor and is a prime ministerial candidate of the United Thai Nation Party (UTN).
The second biggest group of respondents, 27.94%, did not see a favourite among existing prime ministerial candidates; 11.53% pointed to Bhumjaithai Party leader Anutin Charnvirakul; and 10.92% favoured Chaikasem Nitisiri, the presently last prime ministerial candidate of the ruling Pheu Thai Party.
Meanwhile, 9.77% said they would be satisfied with any of the remaining prime ministerial candidates, 3.82% recommended UTN leader Pirapan Salirathavibhaga, 1.83% supported Democrat candidate Jurin Laksanawisit, 0.84% preferred Palang Pracharath Party leader Gen Prawit Wongsuwon, and 0.53% did not know or were not interested.
Opposition and People's Party leader Natthaphong Ruengpanyawut was not among existing prime ministerial candidates for this opinion survey because he is from the dissolved Move Forward Party which had nominated solely Pita Limjaroenrat as its prime ministerial candidate.
Of all the respondents, 8.55% lived in Bangkok, 18.70% in the Central Plains, 17.79% in the North, 33.28% in the Northeast, 13.82% in the South and 7.86% in the East.
Ms Paetongtarn was suspended as prime minister by the Constitutional Court on July 1 as a group of senators asked it to remove her from the prime ministerial seat after her leaked, controversial phone call with Cambodian Senate President Hun Sen.
She was appointed the culture minister at the same time.
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