2001 Thai general election

2001 Thai general election
Thailand
← 1996 6 January 2001 2005 →

All 500 seats in the House of Representatives
251 seats needed for a majority
Turnout69.43%
Party Leader Vote % Seats +/–
Thai Rak Thai Thaksin Shinawatra 39.91 248 New
Democrat Chuan Leekpai 25.86 128 +5
New Aspiration Chavalit Yongchaiyudh 6.89 36 −89
National Development Korn Dabbaransi 6.05 29 −23
Chart Thai Banharn Silpa-archa 5.23 41 +2
Seritham [th] Prachuap Chaisan [th] 2.84 14 +10
Thai Motherland [th] Bhichit Rattakul 2.09 1 New
People's Somboon Rahong 1.24 2 New
Social Action Payung Nopsuwan 0.16 1 −19
This lists parties that won seats. See the complete results below.
Parties that won a majority of the seats in each province
  •   Thai Rak Thai
  •   Democrat
  •   Chart Thai
  •   New Aspiration
  •   National Development
  •   No majority
Prime Minister before Prime Minister after
Chuan Leekpai
Democrat
Thaksin Shinawatra
Thai Rak Thai

General elections were held in Thailand on 6 January 2001 to elect the 500 seats of the House of Representatives. In accordance with the recently enacted 1997 constitution, the House of Representatives was composed of 400 members elected from single-member constituencies and 100 elected from national party lists on a proportional basis.

The Thai Rak Thai party co-founded and led by Thaksin Shinawatra received the most votes and won 248 of the 500 seats on a populist platform of economic growth and anti-corruption. Following the elections, it gained a parliamentary majority by merging with the New Aspiration Party, giving it 286 seats. A coalition government was formed with the Thai Nation Party. The Democrat Party, which had run on a platform supporting neoliberal, IMF-backed economic reforms, went into the opposition with the National Development Party.