Thread: Thai elections 2011-Thai PM sets stage for tough election

Originally Posted by Butterfly

^^ idiot, the burning happened before the terrorists were shot

and yes, it's acceptable to shoot people who try to burning buildings and commit other act of destruction like looting etc...

the life of a red terrorist is not worth shit, like yours

Your post show you don't know what you are talking about.....

Originally Posted by StrontiumDog

Okay, but Thaksin does say Putin is his old friend. And Thaksin is also good buddies with Hun Sen of Cambodia, another massive human rights abuser. So what does it say about someone who talks about democracy, human rights etc etc, but his close friends are dictators and tyrants. Just for SteveCM (I know he is fond of quotes)... "One can judge a man by the company he keeps" -Euripides

I've never posted once that Thaksin is a democrat or a champion of democracy and I'd agree his track record on human rights isn't a good one (when compared by Western standards).

However this isn't the West and the majority of Thais should be allowed to choose who they want to elect without military threat or the invisible elite string pulling, not to mention a corrupt system that's been in place for many, many years and long before Thaksin was elected.

This country has so many problems and in some ways it resembles a tribal run country in Africa, certainly a family networking structure that could be closely compared with certain groups in the USA, Sicily and Italy to name but three.


I have no doubt Putin knows Thaksin well but I'm afraid like it not that's the modern world of politics, finance and corporate trade. Business interests often overcome the insignificant details of human rights, look at the many cases of large corporates doing that not just politicians.


Thaksin's clean up plan was to say the least both radical and ruthless even for here and it didn't suit many people who have money and power, but I believe had he been allowed to continue with the clean up this country would be better for it, substabntially altered and hopefully a much safer place to live.

As far as judging a man by the company he keeps I think you should look very closely at Abhishit and his families historical connections before you quote.

Originally Posted by DroversDog

Originally Posted by Pupa ^^ idiot, the burning happened before the terrorists were shot and yes, it's acceptable to shoot people who try to burning buildings and commit other act of destruction like looting etc... the life of a red terrorist is not worth shit, like yours

Please try to keep in mind "pupa" is a complete and utter PRICK!

From Twitter today:

TAN_Network TAN News Network

ISOC spokesman reveals army chief will refrain from speaking publicly 2 weeks before election to prevent allegations of bias

21 minutes ago

LOL ^ I guess that's after his last interview went so well...

Bangkok Post : Thaksin sets eyes on small parties

Breakingnews >

• Published: 16/06/2011 at 12:36 PM
• Online news:

Small parties may be invited to join in forming a coalition government if Pheu Thai wins the election, Yingluck Shinawatra, the party's No.1 list candidate, said on Thursday.

Speaking at a hotel Mukdahan's Muang district where she campaigning, Ms Yingluck declined to comment when asked about her brother Thaksin Shinawatra's assessment that the Pheu Thai Party would win as many as 270 MPs.

She said what the former prime minister said would be taken aboard by the party to step up its campaign during the remaining two weeks before the election, she said.

On Thaksin's remark that small parties might be chosen to join with Pheu Thai in the formation of the government because medium-sized parties usually had many demands, Ms Yingluck said her brother might want to have many parties in the coalition.

She said such small parties should share the same ideology as Pheu Thai and their policies must be really implemented.

However, Pheu Thai had not yet targeted any parties in particular, she said.

Asked abou the heckling of Democrat Party leader Abhisit Vejjajiva by the red-shirts while campaigning, Ms Yingluck said she did not think it would have any negative affects on Pheu Thai.

She believed the people already had in their minds who they would vote for on July 3

Asked about Mr Abhisit's remark that the red-shirt hecklers were probably organised, Ms Yingluck said she did not know how Mr Abhisit had come up with that conclusion.

Those people might well have acted on their own without being set up to do it, she said.

Bangkok Post : Natthawut: Red-shirt villages symbolic

Breakingnews >

• Published: 16/06/2011 at 01:41 PM
• Online news:

The establishment of red-shirt villages in many localities in the Northeast is not illegal and it only intended as a symbol, to show that people want justice and a single standard for all, Pheu Thai party list candidate and red-shirt leader Natthawut Saikua said on Wednesday.

Mr Nathawut was responding to Democrat Party leader Abhisit Vejjajiva's call for the Pheu Thai Party to explain the reported establishment of red-shirt villages.

He said the red-shirt villages were self-proclaimed by red-shirt supporters who wanted to make them a symbol of their desire for justice and a single standard in the country.

The red-shirt villages did not promote any activities which are against the law and did not pose a threat to any part of society.

On Mr Abhisit's concern that they might obstruct reconciliation, Mr Natthawut said that reconciliation would be achieved only when the people's intentions were recognised.

One of the people's intentions was a political party which wins the election and forms a government.

"Today, what is worrying us is that some parties may not be sportsmanlike if they are defeated," Mr Natthawut said.

He said the monarchy must be cherished and should not be used by any party to destroy their opponents.

Pheu Thai spokesman Prompong Nopparit, a party list candidate, said the Pheu Thai election centre had received a complaint that in the Northeast a group of people went to see villagers and offerred them loan of 200,000 baht free of interest.

Those who wanted the loan were required to show their IDs and pay a 300 baht membership fee.

Mr Prompong said this might be a form of electoral fraud by some political group.

The Pheu Thai Party would gather evidence and report it to the Election Commission next week, he said.

Mr Prompong also said his party received another complaint, that a group of people went to various factories in Rangsit area of Pathum Thani province and told the workers that the Pheu Thai Party would build condominiums for sale along electric train routes.

The workers were told to give them their IDs to obtain the right to buy a condo.

The party was investigating if any executive members of any political parties were involved, he said.

^ For more on the "red-shirt village" element of this report, see Nirmal Ghosh's useful blog entry already posted at https://teakdoor.com/thailand-and-asi...ml#post1785419 (Reds struggling under charter : New chief)

Bangkok Post : Sohpon confident of Saraburi clean sweep

News > Politics

• Published: 16/06/2011 at 12:00 AM
• Newspaper section: News

SARABURI : Transport minister and Bhumjaithai power broker Sohpon Zarum has promised voters in central Saraburi province that if his party wins all four constituency seats, one MP will become a cabinet minister.

"If you vote for all of our MP candidates in the province, you will have a minister from this province," Mr Sohpon said.

He said Bhumjaithai expected to win at least 70 seats in the July 3 election which would give the party more negotiating power to help form a new government regardless of who wins.

"We don't believe that the winner will win more than half the seats in the House. The winner will still need us," Mr Sohpon said.

Mr Sohpon on Tuesday spoke to about 2,000 Bhumjaithai supporters in Saraburi, regarded as the party's stronghold in the central provinces.

The transport minister was on a three-day campaign swing through Saraburi, Nakhon Sawan, Kamphaeng Phet and Uttaradit provinces. The election tour ended yesterday.

Mr Sohpon said Bhumjaithai was hopeful that at least three of its Saraburi candidates would be successful as they had had close ties with local voters for many years.

Mr Sohpon dismissed the rising popularity of Pheu Thai and its No.1 party-list candidate Yingluck Shinawatra, saying his candidates were more acceptable to the electorate in the province than their Pheu Thai rivals.

"I think most voters in the province will choose the people they are familiar with. They will not vote for the party," he said. Furthermore, he said he was confident Bhumjaithai would get the most seats in the province as it had come up with effective policies to help solve people's problems.

The policies included a rice price guarantee scheme of about 20,000 baht a tonne, a two percentage point decrease in the value added tax and an injection of one million baht into all villages, Mr Sophon added.

In Saraburi's Constituency 1, covering Muang and Chalerm Prakiat districts, Saneh Laohapanich of Bhumjaithai is vying against Rangsi Serichaijaimung of Pheu Thai and Kallaya Rungwichitchai of the Democrats.

In Constituency 2, covering Kaeng Khoi, Wang Muang and Muak Lek districts, Porapol Adireksan, who defected from Pheu Thai to Bhumjaithai, is competing against Atthapol Wongprayoon of Pheu Thai and Pattharoj Kamolrojsiri of the Democrats.

In Constituency 3, covering Nong Khae, Nong Saeng and Wihan Daeng districts, Watcharapong Kuwichitsuwan of Bhumjaithai, who defected from the Democrats, is standing against Artong Binsirawanich of Pheu Thai and Chatchai Charoenlap of the Democrats.

In Constituency 4, covering Ban Mo, Don Phut, Nong Don, Phra Phutthabat and Sao Hai districts, Chanat Nathapanya of Bhumjaithai is vying against Ongart Wongprayoon of Pheu Thai and Kittisak Nithinatcharoenkul of the Democrats.


Writer: Apinya Wipatayotin
Position: Reporter

Meet the Editors - June 15: Army chief Prayuth urges the public to vote for "good people".

Uploaded by TheNationDigital on Jun 15, 2011





........

Interesting if only for a candid admission by Tulsathit - watch from about 1'.00" for the context: "..... so if you ask me about taking sides, of course I think he's taking sides....."


Will The Notion say as much in an editorial?

Original caption: "new huge PAD 'vote-no-campaign' poster covering a whole building at the chao phraya -"

[at]vaitor
Florian Witulski June 16, 2011

new huge PAD 'vote-no-campaign' poster covering a w... on Twitpic


.........

That certainly doesn't come cheap.

My travels of the last couple days showed many damaged Democrat Party signs. Mostly 'beheadings' if you know what I mean.

One creative soul cut out the '0' from the Democrat Party #10, leaving the Democrat Party candidate with a large #1.

Isn't that terrible

Those polls that show a large percent of the electorate as being undecided are IMO misleading Post #2515 (Banyai)

An indication that those Polls are not just misleading, but propaganda with a researchy veneer.

Thailand's election: Too hot for the generals | The Economist

Thailand's election

Too hot for the generals

Jun 15th 2011, 7:04 by R.C. | BANGKOK



WHEN it was announced at the beginning of May that Thailand’s main opposition party, Pheu Thai, had picked the young, unknown and politically inexperienced sister of Thaksin Shinawatra to be its candidate for prime minister, some deemed it a silly, even bizarre, idea—not least some within Pheu Thai itself.

A month or so on, however, and the decision is looking like a stroke of genius. Ms Yingluck has taken the campaign by storm, generating enough buzz and excitement to build a handy lead in the polls over the incumbent Democrat Party, led by the prime minister Abhisit Vejjajiva. There is still something over two weeks to go until election day on July 3rd, but if she keeps up her present pace it’s difficult to imagine the Democrat Party ever clawing its way back across the gap.

So how has Ms Yingluck managed it? To shine a little daylight on the magic, I joined her and her very large team for a day on the campaign trail in Thailand’s deep (and largely Muslim) south. This is not natural Pheu Thai country—their heartland is in the rural north of the country—but she was mobbed nonetheless, even if only by her own supporters.

Of course, being the younger sister of Mr Thaksin gives her instant name recognition. The former prime minister, ousted in a coup in 2006 and now living in a self-imposed exile in Dubai, is the unofficial leader of the party; he picked his sister to lead the campaign because he could count on her loyalty. Ms Yingluck thus has a ready-made bond with the Pheu Thai base, including many of the “red shirts”. They still adore Mr Thaksin and see this whole election campaign as nothing less than a final push to get their hero back to Thailand. Warming to this theme, the egocentric Mr Thaksin was rash enough at the start to describe Ms Yingluck as nothing more than his “clone”. It’s clear, however, that Ms Yingluck is rather more than the family android—and brings to the campaign her own qualities and attributes.

For a start, she is not quite the political ingénue that she seems. Although at 44 years old she has never held public office, she points out that she comes from an intensely political family; her father was an MP for Chiang Mai, their hometown in the north-west, and her brother was prime minister. She studied political science in Thailand and public administration at an American university. Politics, her friends claim, is in the blood.

Moreover, though might be relatively new to the game herself, she has surrounded herself with a very experienced team of older men who have been running her brother’s various campaigns for years. Thus her very appealing freshness, youth and easy-going nature are finely balanced against a hard-nosed, slick and pragmatic campaign that organises every step she takes, every camera angle and every handshake. Not a word or a smile is wasted. As the first woman to run for prime minister in Thailand she also seems to be mobilising women to vote for the party. Her youthfulness appeals to the Facebook generation.

In sum, the naturalness and easy manner that Thais appreciate in Ms Yingluck is authentic—but the fact that it comes over so well is the result of a lot of sweat and forethought. I have covered many campaigns now both in rich and in developing countries, and Ms Yingluck’s campaign is among the best choreographed and organised that I’ve seen. And, of course, it helps enormously that she is pretty (“hot” in Thai political-science jargon) and has a big smile—which is just the sort of thing that newspaper editors look for to brighten up their front page every morning.

The Democrat Party grumbles that it’s just a circus, that in reality she is merely a lightweight and wholly unqualified to run the country. Which, of course, might well be true—but it misses the point entirely. She is the perfect early 21st-century political candidate, a beautiful fit for the modern mass media: telegenic, charismatic and very easy for voters to relate to. Her stump speech is short and to the point, just endlessly hammering home a few key populist economic policies that everyone can remember (free tablet PCs for school kids, rise in minimum wage, etc), and then it’s back to loving the camera.

The Democrats, led by Oxford-educated technocrats, argue that their own economic message is, by contrast, deep and meaningful. Maybe, but they have failed to encapsulate it in slogans or phrases that people can pick up on. In truth, they have been completely wrong-footed by Ms Yingluck. At party headquarters all their managers hope for is that the Yingluck whirlwind will blow itself out (“the novelty will wear off”), after which they can then subject her half-baked policies to the scrutiny that they deserve. But by that time, I suspect, the election itself will be virtually upon us. In other words, they are out of time.

Even the army, her elder brother’s main foe, now seems to be taking the prospect of a Yingluck government seriously. Rattled by her success perhaps, the army chief General Chan-ocha appeared on TV on June 14th to urge people to vote for “good people” come July 3rd. The army of course organised the coup against Mr Thaksin in 2006 and are widely considered to have had a hand in putting together the present Democrat-led government; the general was interpreted by some as warning the electorate against voting Pheu Thai. Ms Yingluck has promised to be conciliatory towards the army and her brother’s other “establishment” opponents, if she is elected—but by any measure this seemed to be a considerable provocation.

Winning the election will be one thing, it seems, while actually being allowed to form a government could be quite another. For the moment however it is Ms Yingluck enjoying the “big mo”, as the Americans call it. Someday soon she might even prove too hot for the generals to handle.

Yingluck has confirmed she will be making an appearance in this location June 23rd.

Many Red Shirt Democracy Activists dont know that yet, but one can be sure of a massive turnout. The local sports stadium has been reserved.

She will be accompanied as she is at all rallies I understand, by Nathawut. Many of you know Nathawut, but for those who don't, he is a highly charismatic leader and speaker of the Red Shirt Democracy Movement (RSDM).

The domestic media has been soft-pedalling his involvement at best, and been dismissive.

At many of the past massive rallies of the RSDM, he was always the final, major speaker. That way organizers insured that attendance would remain strong. Many waited for the Nathawut speech, which often didn't come until midnight or later.

Any rally featuring him alone, would be extremely well attended.

Suffice it to say, that combining Yingluck and Nathawut in the local rally, participants wont need to be paid 300 baht to attend, like what happened at last weeks Bhumjathai rally.

Originally Posted by StrontiumDog

Abhisit said Thaksin's claim Pheu Thai would win as many as 270300 out of the 500 seats in the House of Representatives was aimed at boosting the spirits of Pheu Thai politicians and supporters and warning bureaucrats about their possible return to power.

That would be one hell of a majority. Gotta love the Nation's dedication to factual reporting and error-checking

Bangkok Post : Chaturon: Prayuth is not impartial

Breakingnews >

• Published: 16/06/2011 at 04:30 PM
• Online news:

Army chief Prayuth Chan-ocha's televised speech on the coming election shows he is siding with the government and opposing the people and some political parties, banned politician Chaturon Chaisaeng said on Thursday.

Mr Chaturon, a former executive of the dissolved Thai Rak Thai Party under a five-year political ban, said it was improper of Gen Prayuth to have called on the people to turn out in force to exercising their voting right to safeguard the monarchy.

"The Election Commission has issued a regulation prohibiting political parties and election candidates from speaking in any way about the monarchy during their campaigning.

"When the army chief said the people should know what to do in this election to safeguard the monarchy, some parties may have said they agree with him.
"But other parties which made no comment or did not agree with the army chief, could argue that the monarchy should not have been made a political issue," Mr Chaturon said.

He said that in a democratic and civilised country the army chief would not express a political opinion, especially during the lead-up to an election, to avoid putting a political party at an advantage and another at a disadvantage.

What Gen Prayuth said could be seen as tempting political parties to talk about the monarchy and doing so could violate the ruleset by the EC, he said.

Mr Chaturon said people in many circles had voiced concern whether or not a special power or leaders of the armed forces would interfere in the formation of the government after the election if a party that wins the higest number of MPs does not hold an absolute majority.

Therefore, if the army chief were to express his political opinion again he should give a strong assurance that the formation of the next government would not be interfered with again .

Gen Prayuth's speech might cause considerable damage to the country's economy, because other countries, seeing Thailand as being undemocratic, might no longer invest in or associate with Thailand, Mr Chaturon said.

Originally Posted by Norton

Originally Posted by StrontiumDog

Yingluck Shinawatra, the No 1 Pheu Thai party list candidate, had yet to accept the invitation.

Nor should she. Dems will use her refusal to debate as a weakness but so be it.

Couldn't agree with you more Norton.

Can you imagine how the domestic media would distort her participation.

In mature Democracies, political leaders who are clearly in the lead avoid debate entanglements.

It can only damage them. In Thailand this is particularly relevant considering the blanket media bias being what it is.

So to hell with the naysayers

Originally Posted by SteveCM

The Democrat Party grumbles that it’s just a circus, that in reality she is merely a lightweight and wholly unqualified to run the country. Which, of course, might well be true—but it misses the point entirely. She is the perfect early 21st-century political candidate, a beautiful fit for the modern mass media: telegenic, charismatic and very easy for voters to relate to.

It certainly does. She is exactly the type who will win modern day elections. Maybe not a good thing for modern democracies but it is what it is.

^ Indeed, and the huge wave in support that PT has enjoyed has shown how wise the move was by Thaksin. He certainly knows the electorate well. The Dem's have yet again been outmaneuvered. They have also displayed a total lack of imagination/creativity and their campaign so far has been negative and lacklustre. Quite frankly they deserve to lose.

I'm looking forward to seeing what Pheu Thai do or don't do. It will be an interesting indeed.

Yingluck is proving herself to be a good choice. Her responses to aggressive males, such as Prayuth, has been to make them appear inept and impulsive. Very measured responses from her and so far she has always taken a conciliatory tone. Whether that masks her true intent or feelings will be shown in time. Her actions and decisions will be closely scrutinised.

It is one thing to talk the talk, but she is going to take on a very difficult job, in a nation rife with corruption that has many competing factions. However, if anyone is going to deal with this this male dominated society successfully, it is looking as though it will be her.

I also hope she is able to be herself and not just Thaksin's clone.

Abhisit needs to take a long deserved rest, I wouldn't mind voting for Y if I could vote

how good of a public speaker she is though might be a problem if she turns out to be an empty head, a problem found in most women

Originally Posted by StrontiumDog

I also hope she is able to be herself and not just Thaksin's clone.

indeed, it would be nice.

Originally Posted by StrontiumDog

It is one thing to talk the talk, but she is going to take on a very difficult job, in a nation rife with corruption that has many competing factions. However, if anyone is going to deal with this this male dominated society successfully, it is looking as though it will be her.

will depend how good she is in press conf and how good a diplomat she can be,

it's not going to be a board room exercise though, but being a woman can be an advantage, hopefully she will not be a power crazed iron lady

to be honest, I don't see her last more than 1 year if she is too soft, maybe it's part of the plan