Thailand's general election to determine the country's next prime minister and government for the following four years began at 8 am local time today amid a prolonged period of political instability.

There are more than 52.9 million eligible voters, and more than 126,000 police officers deployed to safeguard 99,538 polling stations across the country, according to the official statistics.

Fifty-seven political parties have fielded candidates to contest this general election, while 43 parties have nominated 93 candidates for prime minister. Major political parties running in this general election include Bhumjaithai, Pheu Thai, People's Party, Palang Pracharath, Democrat, Klatham, and United Thai Nation.

Based on previous public opinion polls, it is widely believed that the election will be a three-way contest among Prime Minister Anutin Charnvirakul's Bhumjaithai Party, the progressive People's Party led by Natthaphong Ruengpanyawut, and Pheu Thai backed by the Shinawatra family.

Thailand went through a major change in its election system in 2021, which allows capable individuals who lack political support from various fields to rely on parties' reputations to become members of parliament.

Different from the previous election in 2019, which adopted a form of mixed-member proportional representation, voters in this year's election got two ballot papers, of which one ballot is used to select constituency members of parliament and the other to select a party to lead the government.

Out of the 500 members of the House of Representatives, 400 come from the election on a constituency basis and 100 from lists of political parties.

Voters are provided with another ballot — a yellow form — for a constitutional referendum to decide whether a new constitution should be created or not.

All 500 members of parliament will vote to select the prime minister, with no Senate participation following the expiry of the transitional constitutional provision. A candidate for prime minister must secure more than half of the House, or at least 251 votes.