A profile of Phattharaphon Kengrungreungchai, known as Councilor Nurse, a well-known figure in Bang Sue district, eldest daughter of former councilor Somphong, running again in the same district with her old party, the People’s Party, to promote the “Simple Bangkok” campaign.
On 9 May 2026, following the Election Commission’s approval of the election plan, the Bangkok Metropolitan Council, the Governor of Bangkok, as well as Pattaya City Council members and the Mayor of Pattaya, will be elected on Sunday, 28 June 2026, from 08:00 to 17:00. The candidate registration period for councilors and the Bangkok governor is set from 28 May to 1 June 2026.
On the evening of 5 May 2026, the People’s Party introduced Dr. Chaiwat Sathawornvijit, also known as Dr. Joe, as its candidate for Bangkok governor. The party also revealed its candidates for all 50 Bangkok Metropolitan Council districts, including Ms. Phattharaphon Kengrungreungchai, or Councilor Nurse, a familiar face to Bangkok residents, who is running again in her original district of Bang Sue.
Ms. Phattharaphon Kengrungreungchai, or Councilor Nurse, aged 37, is a native of Bangkok born and raised in Bang Sue district. She is currently affiliated with the People’s Party. She is the eldest daughter of Mr. Somphong Kengrungreungchai, a former Bang Sue councilor who won elections under the Mod Ngan group in 1998 and the Thai Rak Thai party in 2002.
Phattharaphon completed her secondary education in the English program at Yothinburana School, class of '71, and was an exchange student in Grade 10 in the United States. She earned a bachelor’s degree in Fine Arts, specializing in Creative Arts, from Chulalongkorn University, and a Master of Supply Chain Management from the University of Melbourne, Australia. She also holds a specialized executive certificate in marketing strategy from the University of Melbourne.
Before entering politics, she served as managing director of Thai Scrap and Scrap Metal Co., Ltd., a family business. She also founded a rental house business. She has described herself as the eldest of four daughters, a native of Bang Sue, born into a Chinese family that used their home's ground floor as an office and lived upstairs. Growing up around the family’s scrap metal buying and selling business, she was familiar with factories, warehouses, trucks, and trading. After graduation, she returned to run the family scrap metal auction business for seven years, learning all operational levels before being trusted as managing director. She applied her fashion knowledge to enhance the company’s branding and improved management systems, achieving ISO 9001 certification and recognition as a green industry by the Ministry of Industry. She was among the first in Thailand to export scrap metal and continues to do so.
She then shifted to politics, running for councilor at age 33 under the Move Forward Party and was elected. She stated that while studying for her bachelor's degree in Creative Arts at Chulalongkorn University, during the Red Shirt protests at Ratchaprasong, she joined the student political group “Chulalongkorn Community for the People,” organizing protests, seminars, and educational groups on democracy within the university. This experience sparked her political interest.
In 2026, the People’s Party resolved to nominate Phattharaphon Kengrungreungchai, or Nurse, to run again for councilor in Bang Sue district, her original area, using the campaign “Simple Bangkok” to support Dr. Joe Chaiwat Sathawornvijit for Bangkok governor.
