General elections were held in Thailand on 24 July 1988. The Thai Nation Party emerged as the largest party, winning 87 of the 357 seats. Voter turnout was 64%.^[1]

Leaders of the top five elected political parties, consisting of the Thai Nation Party, the Social Action Party, the Democrat Party, the Ruam Thai Party and the Thai Citizen Party, discussed forming a government. All agreed that General Prem Tinsulanonda, the incumbent prime minister, should continue in office, and met with him his residence at Ban Si Sao Thewet on the evening of 27 July. However, Tinsulanonda refused to serve as prime minister for a fourth term, saying eight years and five months as Prime Minister was enough. Chatichai Choonhavan of the Thai Nation Party subsequently became Prime Minister on 4 August, appointing his cabinet on 9 August. Tinsulanonda was appointed as a Privy Councilor on 23 August.

Party		Votes	%	Seats	+/–
	Thai Nation Party	7,612,148	19.29	87	+24
	Social Action Party	4,651,161	11.79	54	+3
	Democrat Party	4,456,077	11.29	48	–52
	Ruam Thai Party	3,988,941	10.11	34	+15
	Palang Dharma Party	3,586,878	9.09	14	New
	Thai People Party	3,143,851	7.97	17	+16
	Rak Thai [lt]	2,454,870	6.22	19	+19
	Thai Citizen Party	2,413,520	6.12	31	+7
	People Party	2,336,962	5.92	21	+3
	Community Action [th]	1,127,418	2.86	9	–6
	Progress Party	1,114,468	2.82	8	–1
	United Democrat Party [th]	810,547	2.05	6	–32
	Liberal Party	690,486	1.75	3	+2
	Mass Party	622,933	1.58	5	+2
	Social Democratic Force	273,932	0.69	1	New
	Thai Agro Industry	179,563	0.46	0	New
Total		39,463,755	100.00	357	+10
Valid votes		16,350,143	96.49
Invalid/blank votes		594,788	3.51
Total votes		16,944,931	100.00
Registered voters/turnout		26,658,638	63.56
Source: Nohlen et al.