page_title: Surayud Chulanont
section_title: Popularity
hierarchical_section_title: Surayud Chulanont / Prime Minister of Thailand / Popularity
caption_attribution_description: English: SYDNEY. Official photo session. President of Russia Vladimir Putin, Prime Minister of Thailand Surayud Chulanont, U.S. President George W. Bush (left to right, first row), Prime Minister of Singapore Lee Hsien Loong, representative of Taiwan Stan Shih and President of Vietnam Nguyen Minh Triet (left to right, second row).Русский: СИДНЕЙ. Церемония официального фотографирования. Президент России Владимир Путин, Премьер-министр Таиланда Сураюд Чуланонт, Президент США Джордж Буш (слева направо в первом ряду), Премьер-министр Сингапура Ли Сяньлун, представитель Тайваня Стен Ши и Президент Вьетнама Нгуен Минь Чиет (слева направо во втором ряду).
context_page_description: Surayud Chulanont is a Thai politician. He was the Prime Minister of Thailand and head of Thailand's interim government between 2006 and 2008. He is a former supreme commander of the Royal Thai Army and is currently Privy Councilor to King Vajiralongkorn.
  Surayud came from a military family, but his father defected from the Royal Thai Army to the Communist Party of Thailand when Surayud was a boy. Surayud joined the Thai Army and rose to power as an aide to General Prem Tinsulanonda. He commanded troops during Bloody May, the violent 1992 crackdown on anti-government protesters, but he denied giving his men the order to shoot protesters. He was promoted to army commander during the government of Chuan Leekpai and was promoted to supreme commander in 2003, under the government of Thaksin Shinawatra. Upon his retirement from the army, he was appointed by King Bhumibol Adulyadej to the Privy Council of Thailand. Surayud and Privy Council President Prem Tinsulanonda played a key role in the promotion of General Sonthi Boonratklin to the position of army commander.
context_section_description: The Surayud government's initial nationwide approval rating in October 2006 stood at 60%, with 8% disapproving. By early-November, this fell to 55% approving and 15% disapproving. For comparison, a nationwide poll in July 2006 found that 49% of respondents would have voted for Thaksin Shinawatra in the cancelled October elections.
  The 2006 Bangkok New Year's Eve bombings caused Surayud's popularity to drop to 48.5% according to Assumption University's polling arm—and just 11% said they had "full confidence" the government can handle the crisis.
  The 2007 Chinese New Year Bombings, which saw 38 bombing attacks, 26 cases of arson, and seven ambushes within a single day, caused Surayud's popularity to drop even further: 53.7% of respondents living in Bangkok and other major cities in felt the government and the CNS could not put an end to problems in the country. Only 24.6% thought that the situation would improve in six months.
  By 24 February 2007, his popularity among Bangkokians had further dropped to 34.8%, although he was still more popular than Thaksin Shinawatra, whom 28.8% of Bangkokians favoured.
  By 4 March 2007, only 31.3% of people in Bangkok supported the government's political stance. This fell dramatically to 12.5% by 26 March 2007. Notably the main reason behind the drop was that people wanted to see quick changes in state policies and that actions and judgments for the ousted former Prime Minister were not forthcoming soon enough.
  The US government decided to continue holding "Cobra Gold" joint military exercises with the Thai government. Immediately after the coup, Washington had halted all military co-operation with, and aid to, the junta. US law forbade assistance to governments of a country where an elected leader has been deposed in a coup.
  In early-May 2007, activists from the Assembly of Isaan People met with junta chief Sonthi Boonyaratglin in order to appeal for him to remove Surayud Chulanont.  Sonthi personally met the anti-Surayud activists at army headquarters and promised he would consider their request. This was the first time that Sonthi met people calling for the removal of Surayud. Sonthi later claimed that he was "tricked" into meeting the activists.
  Surayud launched a weekly talk show called "Poed Baan Phitsanulok" ("Opening Up Baan Pitsanulok"; Baan Pitsanulok is the informal name for Government House) so as to share views and progress of interim government's aim (towards peaceful, internationally recognised general election). The show aired on state-run Channel 11 every Saturday between 08:30 and 09:15. Calling the weekly radio show that was hosted by Thaksin Shinawatra when he was premier "propaganda", he denied any similarity between the two shows.
  The military junta's popularity continued to decline. By late-June 2007, an ABAC Poll found that only 13.6% supported the government, with 69.8 of respondents disappointed with the political situation.
  The government's popularity continued to decline into July, when survey respondents in Bangkok and outlying areas gave the government an average score of 4.32 out of 10. The average score had been 4.53 in March 2007 and 5.27 in January 2007. Fewer than 15% of respondents in the survey felt that the nation's overall situation had improved during the government's nine-month tenure, while 31.6% said the situation remained unchanged and the majority, 34.9% said it had worsened.
caption: Surayud (4th from left) at APEC Summit in Australia
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