National elections will take place July 3rd and it will be interesting, to say the least. The Thai government is set up a bit like the UK. Whichever party wins over 50% of the seats in Parliament gets to set up the government and choose the Prime Minister. If no party gets more than 50% of the seats, two or more parties will join to form a coalition that gives it a majority.
The two biggest parties are the Democratic Party, which is currently in power, and the Puea Thai Party, which is the party of the "red shirts" and of the former Prime Minister, Thaksin Shinawatra. Thaksin was removed from office by a military coup in 2006. Afterward, he was convicted in absentia of several financial crimes. He is currently living in exile in Dubai.
The campaign here is interesting. There are 26 registered political parties, so it is almost impossible to keep them straight. Each party is assigned a number by a lottery and will appear in that order on the ballot. The campaign last only six weeks. Before the official start, there are no campaign posters or TV ads. None of the American stuff with non-stop campaigning. Once the six week period starts, though, posters are EVERYWHERE.
The Democrats are running under the leadership of Prime Minister Abhisit, and the understanding is that if they win, he will continue as PM. The Puea Thai party is still deeply influenced by former PM Thaksin. They have named his sister, Yingluk as the champion of their party and the person to be named PM if they win. Yingluk has already said that if they win, one of their first acts will be to pass an amnesty act that will make it possible for Thaksin to return to Thailand.
As things stand now, all polls show Puea Thai comfortably ahead of the Democrats, but not in a position to get 50% of the vote. My concern, and that of a lot of people is that Puea Thai may "win" the election by getting the highest vote total, but be unable to form a coalition to form the government, and that the Democrats may form a coalition to give them control. This, I am sure, would infuriate the red-shirts and lead to all kinds of problems. Similarly, if Puea Thai wins, and Thaksin comes back, many folks will be furious. We live in interesting times here!
Prime Minister Abhisit (right) showing his support for one of the candidates for Parliament from his Democratic Party.
Puea Thai's leader, Yingluk, former PM Thaksin's sister. Some of you know that I originally had the wrong photo here. I knew when I took that photo it did not look like Kuhn Yingluck to me. I had never seen a Puea Thai poster for anyone except her, though, so I assumed it was an old photo with her hair pulled back. Soon after I posted this, I realized I had the wrong pic, so I went out today and got the real Kuhn Yingluck. The other photo had been of a lady in Puea Thai who is running for Parliament from my district. Thanks to my eagle-eye friends for noticing!
This is Chuwit Kamolvisit, one interesting character. He is the biggest massage parlour owner in Bangkok, and he has formed his own political party. He ran for governor of Bangkok in 2008, but his campaign faltered after he hit a TV reporter who had called him "unmanly."
This guy is trying to capitalize on the craze here over panda bears. China loaned a female panda to Thailand and two years ago, she gave birth to cub, who has captivated the country. There is a TV channel here on 24 hours a day that shows a live view of their cage in the Chiang Mai zoo.
