New Prime Minister Srettha Thavisin's Pheu Thai Party carried much of the fertile northeast in this year's election, but Move Forward's inroads raise the pressure to follow through on lofty economic promises. (Nikkei montage/Source photos by Ken Kobayashi and Getty Images)

Thai PM Srettha faces pivotal test over pledges to party heartland

Pheu Thai promised northeasterners hefty handouts and better days; can it deliver?

FRANCESCA REGALADO, Nikkei staff writer

August 29, 2023 06:00 JST

KHON KAEN, Thailand -- In the run-up to May's election, Thailand's new Prime Minister Srettha Thavisin promised a dream scenario to voters in his Pheu Thai party's northeastern heartland: A landslide win would give the party the power to transform the country's most populous region, which is also its poorest.