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

Originally Posted by Butterfly

^ usual non-sense from our right wing resident racist fascist

Right Wing???

Originally Posted by Tom Sawyer

Originally Posted by Butterfly

^ usual non-sense from our right wing resident racist fascist

Right Wing???

You are not arguing racist fascist?

Originally Posted by Gerbil

Originally Posted by StrontiumDog

Pounding out a dish of spicy somtam (papaya salad) in downtown Bangkok's Sathon business district, Daeng Chanphong, 36, talks with enthusiasm about her upcoming eight-hour bus journey back to Ubon Ratchathani province in the north-east on Friday to vote - for the first time ever.

If she didnt vote in the previous election, then it's a bit pointless as she's lost the right to vote in this one.

Originally Posted by StrontiumDog

You were saying?

Originally Posted by robuzo

Originally Posted by Norton

Originally Posted by sabang

Tis the Dem's and BJT desperately throwing around the slush funds in Isaan.

Can't speak for all Isaan but here and neighboring villages correct. No reports of Dems offering cash for votes but rumor has it substantial money has been transferred by Dems into polling security police bank accounts. If true, wonder why?

Word from a village in Sisaket this morning has it that nobody has offered cash this year, in contrast to previous years. The young woman on the phone sounded a bit disappointed.

Just got back from the local village- Dem's are offering 100bht here, no one else is offering anything. Ubon is electorally quite diverse, so I daresay that in Ubon muang in particular there will be some slush money on offer.

Originally Posted by Butterfly

nice photo-op

Photography inside polling stations, especially of someone actually casting their vote is illegal.

^ Well, thats it then. Turf them out.

Originally Posted by Gerbil

Photography inside polling stations, especially of someone actually casting their vote is illegal.

best toss the entire election then



yfrog Photo : http://yfrog.com/h2palxywj Shared by nationnews

Just announced by the village crier. All registered voters in our village have voted.
Only about 200 in village. No money for PTP votes. Four known votes paid for by Dems at 500 baht each. One known, no money vote for BJT.

Tan network for info live in English..

Thai-ASEAN News Network


They say Phue Thai is coming in big big in exit polls. Sounds like Apisit is trashed!

Sounds like people are shocked by the numbers for Pheu Thai. I'd guess that only the twats in Bangkok who live in their own world outside of Thailand are shocked.

Exit polls show Pheu Thai's victory from 280-313 seats while Democrats win 142-153 seats

Thai-ASEAN News Network

just another argument that the cattle are not fit to vote and believe UDD and PT propaganda

they probably believe the 91 killed were peaceful demonstrators

Looks like another fuggen landslide!

God I love and respect the Thai people when they do something like this!

5 years of relentless agit-prop, forced re-education seminars, threats from the army and they still do it...

Originally Posted by Hampsha

Sounds like people are shocked by the numbers for Pheu Thai. I'd guess that only the twats in Bangkok who live in their own world outside of Thailand are shocked.

Just saw one exit poll that says PT have won 28 seats in BKK, while the Dems have 5. If that's true then the Dems are toast.

So..... Chalerm for PM then?

Originally Posted by Gerbil

So..... Chalerm for PM then?

game set match !!! PT voters completely owned

Yep, it's toast for the Dems...

Blew the Eton fckwit out of the water...

Tough election, my arse...
Fcking landslide victory...

All over but the army...

^^^ Yeh, right.

A Thai exit poll forecast that the allies of ex-premier Thaksin Shinawatra would win a majority in today’s election, a result that may test the army’s willingness to let them govern five years after his ouster in a coup.
The Thaksin-backed Pheu Thai will win 313 seats in the 500- member Parliament, with Prime Minister Abhisit Vejjajiva’s Democrat party winning 152 seats and smaller parties taking 35 seats, according to a Suan Dusit Rajabhat University exit poll. The poll, which surveyed 157,759 people nationwide, correctly predicted pro-Thaksin victories in the elections in 2005 and 2007. It did not provide a margin of error.
Pro-Thaksin Party to Win Parliamentary Majority, Thailand Exit Poll Shows - Bloomberg

Originally Posted by mao say dung

God I love and respect the Thai people when they do something like this!

are you jerking off while saying this ? that sounds quite Thaiophile to say something like that,

Thailand's redshirts prepare for another poll victory
Rural poor hope for the return of billionaire Thaksin Shinawatra after election



Puea Thai Party's Yingluck Shinawatra campaigning in Bangkok Photograph: Sukree Sukplang/REUTERS
Suk Somboon village turned red in the early hours of Thursday morning, when its 200 residents gathered and chanting monks made offerings. They tied scarlet thread around neighbours' wrists, put up flags along the roadside and erected a metal sign declaring their new status.

"It's a red district anyway. The point is the symbolism," said Kwanchai Praipana, a prominent redshirt leader from Thailand's Udon Thani province. "The aim is to show we want justice, democracy and Thaksin [Shinawatra] to return."

Hundreds of north-eastern settlements have proclaimed themselves "red democracy villages" since today's general election was announced, in the latest evolution of the anti-government redshirt movement. It highlights a bitter division that claimed more than 90 lives last year and is focused on one man: the former prime minister, whose beaming face adorns Suk Somboon's new sign.

Thaksin Shinawatra – who was the owner of Manchester City FC for 15 months from June 2007 – defines Thai politics even from 3,000 miles away in Dubai, where he lives to avoid a jail sentence for abuse of power. The redshirt-associated party Puea Thai – led by his sister Yingluck, but Thaksin's in all but name – is on course to beat the incumbent Democrats.

Jon Ungpakhorn, an activist and former senator, warned last week: "There is a clear danger of violence on a scale closer to civil war if either side is provoked by extreme measures – for example, if a Puea Thai election victory were to be derailed by a legal judgment or military coup, or if a Puea Thai government were to swiftly facilitate the return of a defiant Thaksin Shinawatra by means of amnesty and pardon."

Prime minister Abhisit Vejjajiva, arriving for his party's final, rain-drenched rally on Friday, said: "The core issue is whether the Thai people want to move the country forward beyond the conflict created by and surrounding one man."

But Professor Thitinan Pongsudhirak, director of the Institute of Security and International Studies at Chulalongkorn University, suggested that the underlying issue was the awakening of a marginalised grassroots electorate that is challenging the political status quo.

Thaksin, a former telecoms tycoon who recently told Der Spiegel he had "barely a billion" left, might not seem an obvious figurehead for such a movement. But Thitinan described him as "an agent and catalyst for this newly emergent Thailand", adding: "He does not see it that way – he sees it as all about him. On the one hand, it's Thaksin manipulating and exploiting the forces he unleashed. On the other hand, his adversaries deny these voices because they don't want to confront them. They say these people are not educated, or are misguided, or that Thaksin has paid them. But these are the people who will ultimately determine Thailand's political direction."

The Democrats draw support mainly from the south and from the urban middle class, while the pro-Thaksin movement relies on lower-income workers in the north and north east. Analysts suggest social changes, such as increased migration and improved communications, have raised expectations and access to information and reduced deference.

"Five years ago politics was only discussed by the middle and upper classes. Now poor and rural people have become interested and involved," said redshirt trade unionist Jittra Cotchadet.

Puea Thai's promises are expensive and at times clearly rhetorical; they include the eradication of poverty within four years. But, in Suk Somboon, villagers say Thaksin delivered on the affordable healthcare and cheap credit pledges that won two electoral landslides.

"Thaksin said he would give villagers money, and he did," said 63-year-old Naichu Kamala. "I don't care if he is corrupt. All politicians in Thailand are, but Thaksin gives money to the poor."

Though the Democrats are now seeking to woo the same voters, Thitinan argued that they miss the point even when aping popular Thaksin policies; they still see politics as a top-down process.

"They pitched it as welfare. People don't want welfare; they want opportunities and that's how they see it with Thaksin - it's about hopes and dreams," he said.

But the billionaire was toppled in a military coup in 2006 amid growing concern about corruption and increasing authoritarianism. Supporters like Kwanchai say blame his ousting and conviction on jealous elites. Others say there was real cause for alarm.

"Thaksin as prime minister showed contempt for the due process of law, human rights and checks and balances," said Sunai Phasuk of Human Rights Watch, citing mass extrajudicial killings in a "war on drugs" and the use of excessive force in restive Southern province.

"The problem with human rights in Thailand started well before the coup, but the coup made it worse."

Thaksin's Thai Rak Thai party was disbanded, as was its next incarnation; Abhisit came to power in a parliamentary deal. After Thaksin's supporters regrouped as the redshirts and moved onto the streets, occupying a central area of Bangkok last year, a military crackdown led to dozens of deaths.

Observers say both sides have failed to acknowledge their responsibility for violence. But while redshirt leaders were jailed for their involvement, there has been no official admission that the army killed or injured demonstrators - fuelling popular anger.

Finance minister Korn Chatikavanij suggested on Friday that the election was in itself a sign of progress.

"A year ago we were on the verge of civil war," he said.

"Tonight there are two major rallies in two corners of Bangkok by the two major parties. We have every reason to be optimistic."

Others expect further turmoil this year if, as predicted, Puea Thai win most seats tonight but not an outright majority.

"The rise of the PAD [the conservative pro-royalists whose protests helped to topple Thaksin, and prompted the creation of the redshirts] gave birth to violent mob rule in Thailand - the belief that might is right and that if you have grievances anything is permissible," said Sunai of Human Rights Watch.

Redshirt leaders are already threatening protests if it does not form the next government, though political manoeuvring could take months to play out.

"I don't believe any other government will help our people," said 28-year-old Pradit Pimdee in Suk Somboon.

"If Yingluck does not become prime minister, people will be very angry...If the village head tells us to go to Bangkok, I will definitely go."

Thailand's redshirts prepare for another poll victory | World news | The Observer

(I like the 'Another Victory' in the headline!!

so it was a referendum for Thaksin at the end, not a battle for Democracy ?

what does this mean for Thailand democracy ? it's the end of it, Italian Fascism style ?

A humiliating defeat for the dems, the amart, the military and especially newin.