WThe 2019 Thai general election was held in Thailand on 24 March 2019. It was the first election since the 2014 Thai coup d'état that installed coup leader General Prayut Chan-o-cha as prime minister, and the first held in accordance with the 2017 constitution, which was drafted under the ruling military junta. The elections selected the five hundred members of the new House of Representatives, the previous House having been dissolved by the coup.
WThe House of Representatives of Thailand of 2019 consists of 500 members elected in the 24 March 2019 general election, who, together with 250 members of the appointed Senate, form the National Assembly of Thailand. It is the first parliament convened in accordance with the 2017 constitution, which followed the 2014 military coup. Its lower house was the first since the coup to be elected, while the Senate was appointed by the National Council for Peace and Order, the military junta that came to power in the coup.
WOn 2 August 2019, series of small bombs have detonated over five locations throughout Bangkok Metropolitan Area. The blasts location included Chong Nonsi BTS Station, near the King Power Mahanakhon tower, the Chaengwattana Government Complex, the Royal Thai Armed Forces Headquarters, and inside a branch of Miniso; a utility goods store at Siam Square One. The blasts have resulted in total of seven injuries.
WThe coronation of King Maha Vajiralongkorn took place on 4 May 2019 at the Grand Palace, Bangkok, Thailand. Vajiralongkorn ascended the throne at the age of 64 upon the death of his father, Bhumibol Adulyadej, on 13 October 2016, accepting the accession invitation by Prem Tinsulanonda, president of the Privy Council, on 1 December 2016. The coronation was held within just two years after his accession to the throne in 2016 because of an appropriate length of time to pass after the death and funeral of Bhumibol Adulyadej and the arrangement of the ceremony after the last such rite having being held in 1950.
WKanakorn Pianchana was a Thai judge who made a suicide attempt in October 2019 in order to protest against interference in the justice system, and died in a second, successful suicide attempt in March 2020, after being subject to investigations following his actions. At the time of his first suicide attempt, he was a senior judge in the Yala Provincial Court court in south Thailand.
WA trans-national air pollution crisis affected several countries in Southeast Asia from February to September 2019, including Brunei, Indonesia, Malaysia, the Philippines, Singapore, Thailand, and Vietnam.
WTropical Storm Pabuk, also referred to as Cyclonic Storm Pabuk, was a weak storm that struck the Malay Peninsula in January 2019. It was also the earliest-forming storm in both the Northwestern Pacific Ocean and North Indian Ocean basins on record. Forming on the last day of 2018, Pabuk persisted into 2019, spanning two calendar years, and crossed into the North Indian Ocean basin several days later. The first tropical cyclone and named storm of the 2019 Pacific typhoon and North Indian Ocean cyclone seasons, Pabuk originated as a tropical disturbance in the South China Sea on December 28, 2018, which organized into a tropical depression on December 31. A day later, on January 1, 2019, the system intensified into a tropical storm and was named Pabuk. Pabuk made landfall in Thailand on January 4, emerging into the Bay of Bengal in the North Indian Ocean basin shortly afterward. Pabuk weakened after it entered the North Indian Ocean, eventually degenerating into a remnant low on January 7, before dissipating on the next day.