The Pheu Thai Party has maintained a firm grip on voters in the northeastern region, with Khunying Sudarat Keyuraphan taking the lead of all prime ministerial candidates in a poll.
The latest E-Saan Poll by the E-Saan Centre for Business and Economic Research showed Pheu Thai was still the most popular party in the election, endorsed by 43.6% of the respondents.
The Future Forward Party (FFP) kept its second place at 23.2%, followed by the Palang Pracharath Party (PPRP) at 11.7%.
The top three positions remained unchanged from its previous poll last month.
The Democrat Party moved up one spot to fourth with the popular rate of 6.6%, replacing the Bhumjaithai Party, which dropped to fifth at 6.2%.
Pheu Thai was the main party who saw its approval rate slightly dropped, while the popularity of FFP, PPRP and the Democrats increased.
PPRP advanced by 4.2 percentage points, followed by the Democrats (2.7 points) and FFP (1.7 points).
Khunying Sudarat of Pheu Thai led all candidates for the prime minister with 31%, followed by FFP leader Thanathorn Juangroongruangkit (25%), Chadchart Suttipunt, another Pheu Thai candidate, (14%), Prime Minister Prayut Chan-o-cha, who represents PPRP, (12%) and Democrat leader Abhisit Vejjajiva (7%).
The poll of Khon Kaen University was conducted from March 8-10 on 1,093 respondents in 20 northeastern provinces.
The Northeast has 116 seats up for grabs in the general election, the most of all regions.
