Pheu Thai has rated the performance of its Bangkok councillors as satisfactory over the last year as it still licks its wounds after its underwhelming showing in the May 14 general election.
The party celebrated its Bangkok city councillors' first year in office on Tuesday and insisted it delivered some of its pledged campaign policies.
The city councillor election was held on the same day Chadchart Sittipunt, an independent candidate, was elected Bangkok governor on May 24 last year.
Of the councillor seats up for grabs in 50 districts, Pheu Thai claimed the lion's share with 21 seats.
It was the first time the councillor and governor elections had been staged since the May 22, 2014 coup that toppled the Pheu Thai-led administration.
The councillor poll victory was initially thought to foreshadow a major victory for Pheu Thai in the capital in the upcoming national election.
However, Pheu Thai was defeated in the general election when it only won a single seat in Bangkok. The Move Forward Party (MFP) captured the rest.
On Tuesday, Phuangphet Chunlaiad, Pheu Thai's top election supervisor for Bangkok, said the party's overall performance in the past year was quite satisfactory after its councillors were able to ease or resolve problems faced by city residents. She was also confident the new government being formed with Pheu Thai as a coalition partner would accelerate tackling the city's woes via smooth coordination with related ministries.
The party has proposed setting up an extraordinary committee to study the Green Line's overdue payment of around 50 billion baht that the Bangkok Metropolitan Administration (BMA) owes to Bangkok Mass Transit System Plc (BTSC).
Wirat Meenchainunt, a Pheu Thai councillor for Min Buri district in Bangkok, said Pheu Thai councillors had performed their duties as per the Public Administration of Bangkok Metropolis Act 1985 and followed up on the work progress of City Hall with the council's 12 working teams.
In the past year, Pheu Thai councillors have made progress on all the party's five main campaign pledges, though electric train fares have yet to be brought down pending the settlement of a legal dispute, according to Mr Wirat.
Viput Srivaurai, the party's councillor for Bang Rak district, said the party was driving policies to inject a development fund of 200,000 baht into each community -- or about 50 hospitals in 50 districts -- and promoting soft power to expand Bangkok's economic value. About 2,000 communities have participated in the fund.
