When Thai voters go to polls on March 24 in the first elections since a military...
BANGKOK - When Thai voters go to polls on March 24 in the first elections since a military coup, there will be at least three parties on the ballot openly campaigning to keep the military in power through democracy.
Thai politics has been anything but harmonious in the past 15 years, with both opponents and supporters of ousted former premier Thaksin Shinawatra taking to the streets and at times paralyzing government and commerce. “This election is in a way a referendum on the military government and the military coup over the four and a half years,” Thitinan Pongsudhirak, a political analyst at Chulalongkorn University told Reuters.As the junta leader, Prayuth has not officially campaigned for Palang Pracharat, but he has made references to staying on in his job.
Palang Pracharat, which was formed last year, has been using nationalism, which is centered on the three pillars of nation, Buddhism and the monarchy, as a device to promote Prayuth as well as to tarnish their opponents. In arguing for keeping Prayuth in power, it gives an alternate vision to anti-Thaksin voters who have previously supported the pro-establishment Democrat Party.Conservative Thais who filled the ranks of the yellow shirt protests abhor the confrontational-style and what they see as profligate policies of the former telecommunications tycoon Thaksin, who they accuse of buying election victories with handouts.
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