Pro-Thaksin candidates adopt his name in Thai election.
PHIMAI, Thailand — It's election season in Thailand and a campaign truck is rolling at the crack of dawn through the streets of the northeastern town of Phimai, blaring the slogan"Vote Thaksin, Get Thaksin."
He happily explains that sharing his name with the 69-year-old former prime minister is no coincidence, and that he changed his former name — Veerawit Chuajunud — to Thaksin Chuajunud as a vote-getting tactic. The name-changing tactic may be tricky, but it's not insincere. Phimai's Thaksin is running as a candidate for Pheu Chart, one of several small parties established by allies and supporters of the former prime minister.
Thaksin Chuajunud is one of 15 candidates from his party who made opportunistic name changes. Most took on the name"Thaksin," but four adopted the name of Thaksin's sister, Yingluck, who became prime minister in 2011 and was forced from office by a controversial court decision just before the military ousted her government in another coup. She also has faced court cases that supporters charge amount to political persecution, and likewise fled into exile.
Pro-Thaksin parties, despite serious roadblocks put in their way by Thailand's traditional conservative political establishment, have won every national election since 2001. Thaksin's populist policies, such as a universal health care scheme and generous farming subsidies, account for a good deal of his popularity in poor rural areas. They also show the people in those areas the gains the political process could bring them aside from the cash handouts they traditionally receive from vote-buyers on election eve.
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