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9) The theoretical implication of this research is to highlight the empirical political
activities and election behavior that took place on the ground in each constituency and city
wide, which is the interaction between political parties and candidates, on the one hand, and
voters on the other. This examination must be conducted with a focus on demographic and
spatial changes in the city, especially changes in the types of community, the operation and
limitations of urban clientelism, benefits and limits of various forms of media reaching out
to voters in different communities, and finally the new political context at the national level
with changes in legal frameworks aimed at changing the political landscape. The research
findings show that the dynamism and complex political activities and voting behaviors in the
2019 Bangkok general election are not just the action of the individual voters’ choices, or an
automatic reflection of social cleavages (such as class or previous conflicts). The finding from
the ground shows that the existing political regime (which was trying to use election as to
sustain their political power in the name of democratic transition), did not win the election
in Bangkok at the city-wide scale, and it was less popular than those parties and candidates
that ran against the coup regime. The incumbent regime only succeeded at staying in power
as a result of the pre-election restructuring of the legal framework. This restructuring supported
a non-democratic procedure that favored the pro-junta’s formation of a government and
cemented their empowered position through a post-election negotiation between certain
parties as they formed the government.