Election strategies built on competence

It has long been the tradition that Thai cabinet appointments are made with little regard to the qualifications or experience of those who will go to these ministries.

- Mathis Lohatepanont

The Bhumjaithai Party unveils its electoral policies and reaffirms three 'technocrat' experts in the cabinet on Dec 24, 2025. Foreign Minister Sihasak Phuangketkeow, second left, Finance Minister Ekniti Nitithanprapas, third left, and Commerce Minister Suphajee Suthumpun, second right, will join the government if the party forms the next coalition. VARUTH HIRUNYATHEB

(VARUTH HIRUNYATHEB)

Instead of appointments that reflect policy expertise, politicians are often nominated to run a ministry based on the number of MPs under their control and quotas given during the deal-making.

Parties and factions with greater parliamentary strength, often based on the number of seats of elected MPs, tend to receive the more desirable ministries.

Of course, Thailand is far from the only country whose cabinets are built around political loyalty rather than known competence and related experience and background. In the UK, it is common for a politician to have held several cabinet positions in wildly different fields. In Japan, the Liberal Democratic Party has long distributed ministerial roles based on factional affiliation.

This is the norm, rather than the exception, for Westminster-style democracies. Ministers ensure that bureaucrats are responsive to a broader political agenda; what they may lack in area expertise, they make up for with democratic accountability.

But the crises enveloping Thailand over the past several years — economic stagnation, surging public and household debt, geopolitical turmoil, and border conflicts amongst them — raise reasonable fears that the quota-based government portfolios which hinged on the status quo of the Thai leadership and the resume of ministers, may not be up to the task of navigating the country through increasingly treacherous waters.