Voters in Thailand will head to the polls on Sunday, February 8, 2026, in a snap election marked by political volatility and a fragile truce with Cambodia after deadly border clashes. The contest features Prime Minister Anutin Charnvirakul’s Bhumjaithai Party, aligned with the royalist conservative establishment, against the progressive, youth-led People’s Party. Pheu Thai, long a dominant force in Thai politics, is also seeking a comeback after its founder Thaksin Shinawatra’s imprisonment and the removal of two of its prime ministers by the courts.

The election will fill 500 seats in the House of Representatives through a mixed system, with 400 constituency and 100 party-list seats. For the first time in recent cycles, the appointed Senate will not participate in selecting the prime minister, who will require 251 votes in the House. Voters will also decide in a referendum whether to rewrite the 2017 constitution drafted under military rule. Polls show the People’s Party leading, followed by Bhumjaithai and Pheu Thai trailing.

Analysts say no party is expected to win an outright majority, making coalition-building inevitable but potentially unstable. The vote is widely viewed as a test of whether Thailand can end decades of coups, protests, and judicial interventions.