Year: 2007

New York Times: “Former Premier’s Party Wins Thai Vote”

A party that backs former Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra won a parliamentary election on Sunday, defeating a party backed by the generals who ousted him in a coup 15 months ago.

At a recent rally for the People Power Party, participants wore masks bearing the likeness of the ousted prime minister, Thaksin Shinawatra, still a popular and controversial figure in Thailand.

The election result was a repudiation of the generals, who had worked hard to discredit Mr. Thaksin and neutralize his supporters. But the shape of the next government remained in question.

With 95 percent of the votes counted, the pro-Thaksin People Power Party had won 228 of the 480 seats in Parliament, less than a majority but enough to try to form a coalition government.

The Democrat Party, backed by the generals and the political establishment, won 166 seats.

The strong showing means that Mr. Thaksin and his supporters will remain a force in Thai politics whether or not they form a government, and ensures that a struggle for power will continue in this deeply divided country.

FT: “Thaksin allies win elections in snub to military”

Allies of Thaksin Shinawatra, Thailand’s deposed prime minister, won a convincing victory in yesterday’s parliamentary elections in a strong rebuke to the military coup leaders who drove the controversial premier from power last year.

However, the People’s Power party, which became a refuge for Thaksin loyalists following the May dissolution of the former leader’s Thai Rak Thai party, fell slightly short of the 240 seats needed for an absolute parliamentary majority, with early results showing them winning about 230 places in the 480-seat assembly.

This opens the door for a period of intense political bargaining that could see the second-place Democrats, led by the Oxford-educated Abhisit Vejjajiva, form a government in coalition with all other parties.

The military, and the palace backers of last year’s coup d’état, are expected to lean hard on the five smaller parties to deter them from entering an alliance with the PPP, and to press them into a shotgun marriage with the Democrats, which won just 160 seats of the parliament.

Guardian: “Election triumph could herald Thaksin’s return”

The successor party of deposed Thai prime minister Thaksin Shinawatra claimed victory last night in the first election since the military coup 15 months ago, fuelling fears of further political uncertainty.

The Thai election authority’s unofficial tally with most votes counted showed that the People Power party (PPP) won 228 seats, less than an outright majority in the 480-seat parliament, but well ahead of its key rival, the Democrat party, which was headed for just 166.

The electorate’s damning verdict on the coup, if borne out by the final results revealed today, is likely to provoke a protracted period of negotiation as the PPP seeks to form a coalition government.

But the outcome heralds the strong possibility of Thaksin’s return from his London exile as the PPP leadership pledged on the campaign trail that it would dissolve the agencies appointed by the junta to probe corruption charges against the billionaire tycoon who bought Manchester City football club.

Watching from Hong Kong as the results rolled in, Thaksin, 58, raised the spectre of a comeback. That would be a disaster for the military which staged the coup to rid Thai politics of such a divisive figure.

“I would suggest that if we [the PPP] form a national reconciliation government then things will move from there and get smoother and smoother,” he said. “Probably somewhere around mid-February they will have a democratic government. I will consider then when I should go back.”

For further reading, in addition to BangkokPundit, there’s a Wikipedia page that offers a basic overview: Thai general election, 2007.

Thai voters go to the polls on Sunday in what will be the first election since the military coup in September, 2006.

AFP: “Rallies to mark final phase of Thai election campaign”:

Thailand enters its final day of election campaigning Friday, with rallies planned in the capital as the kingdom gears up to vote in a new leader and end more than a year of military rule.

People will head to polling booths on Sunday in the first vote since twice-elected premier Thaksin Shinawatra was overthrown in a coup in September 2006 after months of political turmoil and street protests.

Many of Thailand’s 45.65 million voters are hoping the elections will bring stability back to a nation that has seen 18 coups since the end of absolute monarchy in 1932.

But the country remains fiercely divided, with the poorer northeast still loyal to Thaksin, while people in more prosperous Bangkok and the central regions are vehemently opposed to the return of the millionaire politician.

“What emerges very clearly is this election is about whether or not you support Thaksin and (his party) Thai Rak Thai, or whether or not you support the junta and those who opposed him,” said Giles Ji Ungpakorn, a politics lecturer at Bangkok’s Chulalongkorn University.

Two major parties have emerged as frontrunners, and both are hoping that rallies late Friday in Bangkok will give their campaigns a last-minute boost…

AP: “Corruption and politics: Thailand’s old guard set to return in post-coup election”:

One leading candidate in Thailand’s election is nicknamed the “Walking ATM Machine” for allegedly doling out cash to buy votes. Another reportedly made millions from illegal gambling dens.

Thai voters elect a new government Sunday, 15 months after the military deposed former Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra on grounds that he was too corrupt. It looks like they will get more of the same.

Local commentators have dubbed the election the return of Thailand’s political dinosaurs, many of whom were sidelined during Thaksin’s six-year grip on power.

“Unless the old guard has come up with new ideas, it is likely that Thai politics will return to the same vicious cycle of vote-buying, election, corruption, protests — and then, perhaps, another coup,” said Thitinan Pongsudhirak, a political scientist at Chulalongkorn University in Bangkok.

CSM: “Tensions rise as Thais head to polls”:

Thai voters go to the polls Sunday in the first elections to be held since a bloodless military takeover last year. But the final results may not be to the generals’ liking, dimming the prospect for a smooth hand over of power and an end to a protracted political crisis.

Election officials expect a large turnout after nearly 3 million out of 45 million eligible voters cast advance or absentee ballots last weekend. The elections are the first to be run under a new military-backed Constitution, Thailand’s 18th since the end of absolute monarchy in 1932. Politicians have already vowed to amend the 2007 Constitution, which gives judges, bureaucrats, and generals immense powers to keep elected governments in check.

In recent weeks, tensions have risen over the strong showing of the People’s Power Party (PPP), which is openly loyal to former Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra. Polling is illegal during the final week of campaigning, but previous polls indicated that the PPP may win as many as half of the 480 seats in parliament, well ahead of the second-place Democrat Party.

Time: “Thailand’s Proxy Candidate”:

If you’re a Thai voter who longs for the return of ousted Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra, then Samak Sundaravej is your man. An acid-tongued, fire-breathing ultra-conservative who brands his opponents communists and “street gangsters,” the 72-year-old former Bangkok governor is running in the Dec. 23 national election on a platform the rural masses find irresistible: as he unabashedly declares, “I’m Thaksin’s nominee.” Samak, the nominal leader of the People Power Party (PPP), has promised that if elected he’ll bring back Thaksin and his populist policies, like cheap credit and debt moratoriums. Samak has vowed to grant amnesty to 111 politicians convicted last June by a Constitutional Tribunal of electoral fraud, including the former prime minister. The judges banned them from political activity for five years and dissolved their Thai Rak Thai (TRT) party. Samak’s pledge has the PPP, essentially a reconstituted TRT, leading in every opinion poll.

Reuters: “Stars twinkle political chaos over Thai election”:

Thailand’s soothsayers, like most of its political analysts, reckon Sunday’s general election will do little or nothing in the short term to resolve the country’s deep divisions.

Abhisit Vejjajiva, the Eton- and Oxford-educated chief of a Democrat Party expected to emerge second to the People Power Party backing ousted Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra, should become prime minister at the head of a coalition, they said.

But it was not expected to last or go unchallenged.

“The country will be in chaos as People Power fans don’t want to give up and the economy will escalate from bad to worse,” said Kitja Thaveekulkij, who predicted Thaksin’s ouster in 2006 five months beforehand.

“Abhisit will be prime minister for one-and-a-half years at most. After that the Democrats will have to shut their party for renovation awaiting a new leader to emerge,” Kitja told Reuters.

That prediction was much in line with the views of political analysts who believe the leaders of the September 2006 coup against Thaksin and the royalist establishment are determined not to let his followers back into power.

For frequently-updated info, check out BangkokPundit and 2Bangkok.com.