Question to the Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office:

To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs, whether he plans to send election observers to monitor the forthcoming general election in Thailand.

We continue to follow political developments in Thailand closely. We expect elections to be held in February 2019 in accordance with the timetable published by the Thai Election Commission. We welcome the Thai government’s lifting of political restrictions on 11 December, and hope this will lead to a free and open environment in which elections can occur. We have regular dialogue at Ministerial and senior official level with the Thai authorities and have urged them to invite international observers to monitor the upcoming elections. The Prime Minister raised this with Prime Minister Prayuth Chan-o-cha during his visit to the UK in June, as did the Minister for the Commonwealth and UN, Lord Ahmad, with the Thai Ambassador on 2 November.

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