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BANGKOK: Thais went to the polls Sunday in an election meant to
restore democracy more than a year after the military ousted premier
Thaksin Shinawatra, whose shadow looms large over the balloting.
About 45.7 million Thais are eligible to vote in
the first post-coup election, in which opinion polls predict neither
of the kingdom’s two leading parties will win a clear majority of
the 480 seats in parliament.
Voting stations opened at 8 a.m. and were due to
close at 3 p.m. The Election Commission said voter turnout would
likely reach 70 percent, with unofficial results expected by
midnight Sunday.
Electoral authorities have already received more
than 900 complaints about alleged election frauds, mainly vote
buying, which has a long history in Thailand.
The election is also being held with more than
one third of the country, including Thaksin’s rural strongholds,
still under martial law.
But army-backed Prime Minister Surayud Chulanont
insisted the polls would be fair. “The election is being held
transparently and is fair to everyone,” Surayud said after casting
his ballot in Bangkok.
Voters began lining up shortly before polling
stations opened in the Thai capital, many of them wearing yellow or
pink shirts in honor of the nation’s revered King Bhumibol
Adulyadej.
“I’m glad we’re having this election
today, so we can hold our heads high to show the rest of the world
that we are a democratic country,” said Somjit Hongthong, a
53-year-old housewife, as she lined up to vote in Bangkok.
Frontrunners in the race are the People Power
Party (PPP), which was taken over by allies of Thaksin’s disbanded
Thai Rak Thai (Thais Love Thais) party, and the Democrat Party,
Thailand’s oldest political outfit.
Since the coup, Thaksin, 58, has been living in
exile in Britain, where he has bought the Manchester City football
club.
PPP has campaigned on promises to bring back
Thaksin’s economic policies and to allow the exiled leader to
return to Thailand.
“Those who staged the coup 15 months did
nothing good for the people, not like the good things Thaksin did
during his five years” in office, PPP leader Samak Sundaravej told
reporters after casting his ballot in Bangkok.
“That’s why Thaksin is still in people’s
hearts and minds,” he said.
Although the junta dissolved Thaksin’s party
and banned him from politics after the bloodless coup in September
2006, the former premier remains a dominant and divisive figure in
Thai politics.
Few analysts believe the election will resolve
deep divisions between anti-Thaksin urban dwellers and the rural
masses, who remain loyal to the deposed leader.
PPP draws most of its support from farmers, the
majority of Thailand’s 64-million population, who remember efforts
by the self-made billionaire Thaksin to boost the rural economy
during his five-year rule.
The Democrat Party is popular among Bangkok’s
middle-class, who spearheaded anti-Thaksin protests that culminated
in the coup.
“The poll this Sunday is a continuation of our
ongoing political crisis,” said Thitinan Pongsudhirak, political
science professor at Bangkok’s Chulalongkorn University.
“This election shows the struggle between pro-Thaksin
and anti-Thaksin forces,” he said.
The military has tried to ensure its continued
influence over the govern-ment even after Sunday’s election.
The generals tossed out Thailand’s 1997
constitution, widely hailed as the most democratic the kingdom had
ever known, and passed an army-backed charter in a referendum in
August.
Critics warn the new charter will encourage weak
coalition governments while returning real authority to the
military, the bureaucracy and the royal palace.
All three institutions have played key roles in
most of Thailand’s turbulent political history, which has seen 24
prime ministers and 18 coups in the past 75 years.
-- AFP
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