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| Southeast Asia |
| Thai polithix go thopsy-thurvy |
| 2007-12-24 |
| The party backing Thaksin Shinawatra, the ousted Thai prime minister, easily won the most seats in yesterday's election – a stunning rejection of the coup that booted out the telecoms billionaire in 2006. With 93 per cent of the vote counted last night, the People Power Party (PPP) was heading for 228 seats in the 480-member parliament and said it would form a coalition government, although analysts do not expect a smooth transition in the deeply-divided country. Samak Sundaravej, the abrasive PPP leader, said Mr Thaksin had phoned from exile to congratulate him on the result, which is a major problem for the generals whose campaign to consign him to political oblivion via the coup and corruption charges now lies in tatters. "It is a victory for this country," Mr Samak said, adding that he would "certainly be prime minister. This country lost its freedom on 19 September last year for no good reason." The big question is whether the army and the royalist establishment, whom the Thaksin camp claims was the brains behind the bloodless coup, will allow their arch-enemy to make a comeback by proxy. Although some analysts said a strong PPP showing might trigger another coup, others believe the army-appointed government is more likely to try first to stymie the PPP by disqualifying candidates for vote fraud. The bigger the PPP win, however, the harder that will be. |
| Posted by:Seafarious |
| #1 IMHO a victory for democracy. BTW, vote buying is rampant in Thai elections, but otherwise the election seemed free and fair. |
| Posted by: phil_b 2007-12-24 00:16 |