Thais turn up for first wave of voting
I have a theory that the key to success in the current national elections in Thailand lies in the billboards. The number of billboards candidates murder the scenery with is directly proportional to the number of votes those candidates will receive.
Everywhere you go, there are billboards and posters with images of the various candidates and their numbers. Are people supposed to just choose the person whom they think looks the most worthy? There certainly isn’t much policy to judge the candidates on.
In Phuket, we covered each of the parties running in the election in a two-page spread. Aside from generic policies and wild promises, such as making it high season every day in Phuket, none of the candidates said anything about their parties that made them look different to each other. There is no political ideology to get behind.
When people talk about who they will vote for, it’s usually based on whom their parents voted for or else something to do with Thaksin.
This weekend, 1.5 million people turned up to vote in advance of the main voting day on December 23. This gem came from The Nation today:
Former junta-leader General Sonthi Boonyaratkalin was one of those who voted yesterday. At a poll booth in Lop Buri province, Sonthi was heckled by a man shouting: “I won’t vote for a dictator, and I won’t vote for you!”
Plainclothes security officers muzzled Preecha’s mouth with their hands, gave him threatening looks and tried to drag him away before Sonthi fled in a limousine.
Voting appears to have gone smoothly for the most part. It’s unclear whether people being unable to drink alcohol has had anything to do with this. Patong last night was a town full of desperate people. In the end, we had a small gathering at the beach.
December 16th, 2007 at 12:43 pm
It does feel like a beauty contest up here in Bangkok. There isn’t a lamp post, tree or any other piece of roadside furniture that hasn’t got a poster attached to it. For me, number 13 in the Tha Phra area gets my vote. ;-)
December 16th, 2007 at 2:03 pm
If you did not yet get it that it was all about image and not substance, it is never to late for a wake up all ! ;-)
But don’t forget that there is a lot of canvassing going on in the background, door to door, by car with loudspeakers and so on…
December 16th, 2007 at 3:58 pm
The road near our house is just full of posters, but there are plenty of furniture shops vying for space with the election posters. The alcohol thing is surely going to annoy tourists. I feel central Patong should just be declared a “hedonism zone” and allowed to do whatever it wants. And surely a nice respectable farang such as myself should be allowed to buy a beer? I am not going to vote… even my normally reliable local shop was closed last night. I found a place to buy a “naughty” bottle of Chang but the shop owner was super paranoid about selling beer. Next weekend I will just have to stock up in advance like all the locals do.
December 17th, 2007 at 6:08 am
Everywhere you go, there are billboards and posters with images of the various candidates
At the FCCT, Jonathon Head mentioned that in the north, certain forces are purposely disenfranchising the voters, there is almost no political advertising at all.
December 17th, 2007 at 4:00 pm
i was surprised to see a bundle (quite a big bundle that was) of brochures/pamplets left at my door the other day. it was useless, i am a foreigner… and i saw notice (on saturday) planted inside 7-elevens that simply read, ‘liquor and alcoholics not available today. sorry’ or something to that tune…how could there be alcoholics without liquor?