The 2025 Thai Provincial Administrative Organization (PAO) election was a local election held in Thailand on 1 February 2025 to elect 47 of 76 chief executives and 2,316 council members of the PAO in 76 provinces. The Pheu Thai party's directly endorsed and affiliated candidates won the most chief executive seats.
Chief executives were elected in only 47 of the 76 provinces because in the other 29 the incumbent had resigned before the end of the four-year term, which triggered an early election during 2024. Those provinces therefore voted only for council members on 1 February 2025.
This is the fifth PAO election, excluding by-elections for chief executives, since the amendment of the PAO Act (third edition) in 2003 to allow direct elections for PAO chief executives. Prior to the amendment, chief executives were chosen by council members.
Many chief executive candidates were incumbents. Out of the 76 provinces, 12 chief executives have held the position for over 20 years.
Results In the 47 provinces where PAO chief executive elections were held, unofficial results as of 23:00 local time were: +Political Party (including affiliated local groups)PAO Chief Executives Pheu Thai16 provincesBhumjaithai14 provincesUnited Thai Nation4 provincesDemocrat3 provincesPrachachat2 provincesChart Thai Pattana2 provincesPeople's1 provincePalang Pracharath1 provinceKla Tham1 provinceIndependent3 provinces The ruling Pheu Thai Party led in unofficial results. The People's Party claimed its first victory in a provincial-level election, with the election of Weeradej Phupisit as PAO chief executive of Lamphun province. Weeradej defeated former PAO chief executive and cabinet minister Anusorn Wongwan. Neither of the People's Party's progressive predecessors (Future Forward Party and Move Forward Party) won a PAO leadership election.
Turnout On 3 February 2025 the Secretary-General of the Election Commission (EC), Sawaeng Boonmee, published final figures for both contests. Turnout fell short of the 65 per cent the EC had projected on polling day.
+ Turnout and ballot composition Chief executive (47 provinces) Council (76 provinces) Registered voters 27,991,587 47,124,842 Votes cast 16,362,185 (58.45%) 26,418,754 (56.06%) Valid ballots 14,272,694 (87.23%) 23,131,324 (87.56%) Spoiled ballots 931,290 (5.69%) 1,488,086 (5.63%) None of the above 1,158,201 (7.08%) 1,799,344 (6.81%)
Among the 47 provinces electing a chief executive, turnout was highest in Lamphun at 73.43 per cent, followed by Nakhon Nayok (73.00%), Phatthalung (72.56%), Narathiwat (68.42%) and Mukdahan (68.03%).
Chief executives elected +ProvinceChief Executive CandidatePolitical Party/Local GroupAffiliated Political PartyNorthern ProvincesChiang MaiPichai LertpongadisornPheu ThaiChiang RaiAtitathorn WanchaitanawongIndependentBhumjaithaiLampangTuangrat LohsunthornPheu ThaiLamphunWeeradej PhupisitPeople'sPhichitKrit PensupaBaan See Keaw GroupBhumjaithaiNanNopparat ThawongPheu ThaiPhraeAnuwat WongwanPheu ThaiMae Hong SonAkkharadet WanchaitanawongDee Tor Nuang GroupBhumjaithaiNortheastern ProvincesNakhon RatchasimaYolda WangsupakitkosolPheu ThaiNakhon PhanomAnuchit HongsadiPheu ThaiBueng KanWaenfa ThongsriBueng Kan Bueng Jai GroupBhumjaithaiBuriramPhusit LekudakornKhon Buriram GroupBhumjaithaiMaha SarakhamPhonphat CharassathienPheu ThaiMukdahanWeerapong ThongphaMukdahan's Future GroupPalang PracharathSisaketWichit TraisornkulKhon Thong Tin GroupBhumjaithaiSakon NakhonNaruemon SapsorPheu ThaiNong KhaiWutthikrai ChanglekPheu ThaiNong Bua LamphuSaranya SuwanapromNong Bua Khunatham GroupKla ThamAmnat CharoenPanat PhanwanBhumjaithai Amnat GroupBhumjaithaiCentral ProvincesChachoengsaoKulayut ChaichangRuam Jai Pattana GroupPheu ThaiChonburiWittaya KhunpluemRao Rak Chonburi GroupPheu ThaiPrachinburiNapaphat AnchasanichmonPheu ThaiChanthaburiThanapon KitchakanIndependent DemocratNakhon NayokNida KhanayngamIndependent Palang PracharathNonthaburiThongchai YenprasertPhung Luang GroupPheu ThaiPrachuap Khiri KhanSarawut Lim ArunrakFriends of Chalermchai GroupDemocratLopburiOrapin JiraphanvanichIndependent BhumjaithaiSamut PrakanSoonthorn PansaengthongProgressive Samut Prakan GroupPalang PracharathSamut SakhonUdom KraiwatnusornWorkers' GroupPheu ThaiSamut SongkhramJetsada YanpraphasiriKhon Kong Prachachon Khon Samut Songkhram GroupKla ThamSaraburiSanya Boon-LhongIndependentPalang PracharathSing BuriSupawat TianthawornIndependentPalang PracharathSuphan BuriUdom ProngfaChart Thai PattanaNakhon PathomJirawat SasomsubChao Baan GroupChart Thai PattanaTratWichian SupacharoenChildren of Trat GroupPheu ThaiRayongSurasak CharoensirichotPalang Chang GroupDemocratSouthern ProvincesKrabiSomsak KittithornkulRak Krabi GroupBhumjaithaiNarathiwatKu Seng Yao Aha SanIndependent PrachachatPattaniSet AlyufreeIndependentPrachachatPhang NgaBamrung PiyanamvanichRak Phang Nga Pattana Phang Nga GroupDemocratPhatthalungWisut ThammaphetPalang Phattalung GroupUnited Thai NationYalaMukhtar MataYala Pattana GroupPrachachatSatunSumrit LiangprasitSatun Santitham GroupBhumjaithaiTrangBunleng Lo SathanapornpipitNayok Boonleng's GroupDemocratPhuketRewat AreerobPhuket Yaddai GroupDemocratSurat ThaniWichawut JintoPalang Surat GroupUnited Thai NationSongkhlaSupit PhitakthamSongkhla Palang Mai GroupDemocrat
Results by province Results are given for the 47 provinces that elected a chief executive on 1 February 2025. Figures are shown only where two independent sources agree on every candidate's total, or where an official count has been located; six provinces are listed without figures because published sources conflict materially. Percentages are shares of valid ballots.
Amnat Charoen
Bueng Kan
Buriram
Chachoengsao
Chanthaburi
Chiang Mai
Chiang Rai
Chonburi The election was won by Wittaya Khunpluem. Published vote totals for Chonburi differ substantially between sources and no official count has been located, so figures are not given here.
Krabi
Lampang The election was won by Tuangrat Lohsunthorn. Published vote totals for Lampang differ substantially between sources and no official count has been located, so figures are not given here.
Lamphun
Lopburi The election was won by Orapin Jiraphanvanich. Published vote totals for Lopburi differ substantially between sources and no official count has been located, so figures are not given here.
Mae Hong Son
Maha Sarakham
Mukdahan
Nakhon Nayok
Nakhon Pathom
Nakhon Phanom
Nakhon Ratchasima The election was won by Yolda Wangsupakitkosol. Published vote totals for Nakhon Ratchasima differ substantially between sources and no official count has been located, so figures are not given here.
Nan
Narathiwat
Nong Bua Lamphu
Nong Khai
Nonthaburi
Pattani
Phang Nga
Phatthalung The election was won by Wisut Thammaphet. Published vote totals for Phatthalung differ substantially between sources and no official count has been located, so figures are not given here.
Phichit
Phrae
Phuket
Prachinburi
Prachuap Khiri Khan
Rayong The election was won by Surasak Charoensirichot. Published vote totals for Rayong differ substantially between sources and no official count has been located, so figures are not given here.
Sakon Nakhon
Samut Prakan
Samut Sakhon
Samut Songkhram
Saraburi
Satun
Sing Buri
Sisaket
Songkhla
Suphan Buri
Surat Thani
Trang
Trat
Yala
Analysis Writing for the ISEAS–Yusof Ishak Institute, Chanintorn Pensute of Chiang Mai University characterised the election as one in which national parties intervened heavily while leaving little space for candidates without an established base.
Party endorsement Nine parties were involved in the contests, but only three endorsed candidates formally. Pheu Thai endorsed 16 and elected 10, in Nakhon Ratchasima, Sakon Nakhon, Nong Khai, Maha Sarakham, Nakhon Phanom, Prachinburi, Chiang Mai, Nan, Phrae and Lampang. The People's Party endorsed 17 and elected one, in Lamphun. Chart Thai Pattana endorsed a single candidate, in its Suphan Buri stronghold. Bhumjaithai endorsed nobody but was closely connected to several winners, an arrangement Pensute argues was deliberate: in provinces such as Chiang Rai and Sisaket, where the party holds few or no parliamentary seats, a formal endorsement risked doing a candidate more harm than good, so an informal association and a congratulatory message afterwards were the safer course. No candidate was endorsed by the Democrat Party, whose affiliates stood as independents.
Incumbency and political families Incumbency proved a powerful advantage. Across the country somewhat more than half of the sitting chief executives were returned, and in the northern provinces the proportion was higher still, with incumbents re-elected in Chiang Rai, Chiang Mai, Nan, Phrae, Mae Hong Son and Lampang. Of the 76 provinces, 12 had a chief executive who had held the post for more than twenty years. Somsak Kittithornkul was returned unopposed in Krabi for an eighth term, while Wichit Traisornkul in Sisaket and Thanapon Kitchakan in Chanthaburi each won a seventh.
Political families, known in Thai as trakun kan mueang or ban yai, featured prominently. Members of the Wanchaitanawong family retained the chief executive's post in both Chiang Rai and Mae Hong Son, and the Wongwan family held Phrae through Anuwat Wongwan, who by the end of his term will have led that organisation for more than two decades. In Lamphun, however, another member of the same family, Anusorn Wongwan, was defeated by Weeradej Phupisit of the People's Party, himself the son of a former chief executive of the province.
The People's Party For the People's Party the outcome was mixed. A single provincial victory was a poor return on 17 endorsements, but it was an improvement on 2020, when the party's predecessor movement contested 42 provinces and won none. Pensute points to Chiang Mai as the more instructive case: Pun-Arj Chairatana, a first-time candidate with no political background, took 41.78 per cent of the ballots cast against an incumbent backed by Thaksin Shinawatra, and the party simultaneously won 15 of the 42 council seats in the province, including four of five in the city district. The comparison drawn is that opposition candidates in several provinces increased their vote substantially while Pheu Thai's held roughly steady, most starkly in Lampang, where the losing candidate's vote rose by 137 per cent between 2020 and 2025 as the incumbent's declined.
Wider significance Provincial administrative organisations control a meaningful share of public spending, with local government accounting for 22.36 per cent of the national expenditure budget in the 2025 fiscal year, and the campaigns were explicitly tied to national politics. Pheu Thai speakers in Chiang Mai linked continued support for the party to delivery of the 10,000-baht handout, while People's Party figures campaigned on decentralisation and on the transparency of provincial administration. Pensute notes that the two-term limit reinstated by the fifth amendment to the Provincial Administrative Organisation Act will apply from the next round in 2029, disqualifying those who have served consecutively in 2020 and 2025 and potentially opening the field to newcomers.
Conduct
Spoiled and blank ballots