Mr Thaksin expressed surprise at the lengths to which the military junta have gone to “manipulate the general election” in order to remain in power
Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra. Mr Thaksin did not only pen an opinion piece for the New York Times entitled “The Election in Thailand Was Rigged,” but he has also given interviews to Singapore’s Straits Times, The Washington Post, the Nikkei Asian Review, among others.Mr Thaksin started by expressing his surprise concerning how far the military junta has gone to “manipulate the general election” in order to remain in power.
Mr Thaksin pointed out the anomalies concerning the number of ballots versus the number of voters, mismatched results from the election commission and officials at the polling stations, the large number of invalidated ballots, and the wrongly-marked ballots that were nevertheless counted for the party linked to the military, Palang Pracharat.He wrote, “The junta appointed the election commission and has interfered with the work of what are supposed to be independent agencies and institutions.
He ended his opinion piece with, “More than anything, Thailand should have a government that reflects the will of the people, not the will of the junta. This is a terrible, and sad, moment for my country., Mr Thaksin was asked if he believes the election had been free and fair. He cited the “irregularities which never happened before in the previous election.” He added that “That was the intention,” referring to the military., Mr Thaksin expressed his fears for the future of democracy in his country. In a telephone interview he said, “If Palang Pracharat forms the next government, they will try everything and every way to stay [in power] longer.
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