Social Security Reform Team Claims Victory in Board Election
Satsarat Thammabut of the Progressive Social Security Team thanked voters after securing a strong showing in the Social Security Board election, saying the team has enough support to drive reform. He said the first step would be to make the nation's largest welfare fund serve all citizens, not just elites, and pointed to past achievements despite holding only six of twenty-one board seats.
Satsarat Thammabut, candidate for the Social Security Board under the Progressive Social Security Team, addressed reporters after the vote count for the 15th Social Security Board. He expressed deep gratitude for the massive voter turnout, which exceeded that of the 2023 election, reflecting public demand to reclaim the social security system for the people. He highlighted the difficulties voters faced, including flood-affected areas, traffic jams, and early-morning queues, with some rising as early as 5 a.m. to cast their ballots before Sunday work. Although only about 15-20 percent of the votes had been tallied at the time of the press conference, the Progressive team had secured a significant share of the vote. Satsarat declared the team to be the people's hope and a thorn in the side of the elite and privileged groups, underscoring the clash between calls for a responsive social security system and the entrenched power structure. He reiterated the team's slogan, "benefits board, not a handout board,", insisting that reform—not token gifts like calendars—was the goal. He criticized the Social Security Office for operating without transparency and pledged to bring oversight that would drive change. Over the past two years, the team's six representatives on the 21-member board have delivered concrete results, extending benefits to roughly 1.2 million insured persons, increasing compensation for hundreds of thousands of unemployed workers, improving living conditions for nearly a million pensioners, and enabling over 100,000 people with severe tooth pain to access wisdom-tooth extractions. Looking ahead, Satsarat said securing 14 out of 21 seats would give the team sufficient votes to push through social-security reform and return the fund to ordinary citizens.
