Chadchart Sittipunt looks set to win the gubernatorial election on Sunday, leaving other candidates trailing by a wide margin.
With 29% of the votes counted, the former transport minister received 203,671 votes, ahead of Move Forward Party candidate Wiroj Lakhanaadisorn, who received 38,625 votes.
Democrat Party candidate Suchatvee Suwansawat was running third with 38,569 votes, followed by former Bangkok deputy governor Sakoltee Phattiyaul with 35,069, former governor Pol Lt Gen Aswin Kwanmaugn with 30,690 and Rosana Tositrakul with 7,795.
Like Mr Chadchart, Pol Gen Aswin, Mr Sakoltee and Ms Rosana ran as independent candidates.
With the former Pheu Thai heavyweight leading by a landslide, former election commissioner Somchai Srisutthyakorn was confident that the result was already sealed. "There will be no upset as the vote is counted," he said on Thairath TV.
The ongoing count confirmed all the opinion polls that showed Mr Chadchart ahead of other candidates from the beginning, including the pre-election Nida poll by the National Institute of Development Administration. That poll, conducted between Wednesday and Saturday and released after the voting time ended, showed Mr Chadchart supported by 50% of respondents.
- Gallery: Bangkok goes to the polls
Mr Chadchart refused to declare victory until the vote counting finished. "If the voters give me the mandate to be the governor, I will do my best," he said.
Mr Somchai said voters, including those casting a ballot for the first time, supported Mr Chadchart regardless of their feelings about his political background with the Pheu Thai Party.
"Votes for Mr Chadchart came from both Pheu Thai supporters and those who did not support Pheu Thai," he said.
He was the transport minister when Yingluck Shinawatra was the prime minister under the Pheu Thai banner.
Mr Suchatvee said after the polls closed that he wanted to set an example for younger generations to get involved with politics regardless of the election results.
"This country has many young, capable people. I hope my decision to run for governor to help the nation would encourage them to follow," the former rector of King Mongkut's Institute of Technology Latkrabang said.
The unofficial results are expected by 9pm.
