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Thai politics

Economist on Thailand elections

An Economist story that ran yesterday says things are looking good for Puea Thai, but that it’s still unclear who will actually form the next government:

With little more than a week to go before polling day on July 3rd, it is clear that the opposition Pheu Thai (PT) party will win more seats than any other in Thailand’s 500-strong parliament. This will mark an extraordinary comeback for the unofficial leader of PT, Thaksin Shinawatra, a former prime minister ousted in a military coup in 2006 and now living in exile in Dubai as a fugitive from Thai justice. Some even predict that PT may win an outright majority, though a hung parliament looks more likely. But in Thai politics merely winning an election is not enough; whether PT gets to form a government is another matter entirely.

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Thai politics

Photos from Democrats’ rally at Rajaprasong last night

As promised, here are a few cell phone images I snapped at last night’s Democrat rally in front of CentralWorld mall, in the Rajaprasong area.

None of these pics are photographic masterpieces, but they should convey a sense of what the scene looked like.

Crowd seen from midway back.
The crowd, roughly mid-way back from the stage.

Crowd
The crowd listening to Deputy PM Suthep.

CentralWorld mall
Another pic of the crowd, with CentralWorld behind.

Crowd, seen in background, from BTS sky bridge
People assembled, seen in the background, behind the trees. Photo taken from BTS sky train walkway.

Here are some of my Tweets from the evening (1, 2, 3, and 4):

1. Dems rallying at rainy Rajaprasong. Suthep on stage showing pics and video from April 10 clashes.

2. Dems at Rajaprasong: Suthep showing map of red shirt camps and photo of shot soldiers and journos.

3. Several thousand people here. Abhisit signs, blue Democrat party flags, and lots of umbrellas. Also, snacks, of course.

4. No red shirts in sight. People packed into area under cover in front of CTW. Old portion of mall behind, still being repaired.

For more, here’s an AP story about the gathering; it says:

Thailand’s prime minister rallied thousands of campaign supporters Thursday at the scene of last year’s deadly anti-government protests, defending his crackdown on demonstrators there as the best he could do under difficult circumstances.

Read the whole thing.

And here’s a Bangkok Post story about the rally, as well as an essay from The Nation‘s Pravit Rojanaphruk.

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Thai politics Thailand

Bangkok Post: “Court dismisses case against Dems”

To follow up on my previous post: This is just in from the Bangkok Post:

The Constitution Court on Monday dropped the electoral fraud case against the Democrat Party, ruling that the petition process was unlawful from the start.

The judges voted four to two against the petition brought by the Election Commission.

Stay tuned…

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Thai politics Thailand

Constitution Court to rule Mon. on Democrat Party dissolution

Thailand political nerds only…

Thailand’s Constitution Court is due to rule Monday on a dissolution case against Prime Minister Abhisit’s Democrat Party. Here are some resources for reading up on the issues at hand:

For analysis, I suggest this Bangkok Pundit post, called “Why would the Democrats be dissolved?”

And here’s a Bangkok Post story about the Election Commission’s recommendation, during the red shirt protests back in April, that the party be dissolved.

The case is also mentioned in this Reuters story about political risks in Thailand.

And finally, today’s Nation offers this graphic, below, explaining the situation. Here’s a bigger version.

2010-11-26_dissolution_case.jpg