Thailand's Election Commission warned of disruption to polling preparations in the capital and southern provinces ahead of tomorrow's election, as anti-government protesters readied for a fresh rally in Bangkok to coincide with the vote.
While north and northeastern regions -- strongholds of Prime Minister Yingluck Shinawatra -- were on track for the ballot, demonstrators blockaded the Laksi district in Bangkok, preventing the commission from distributing voting papers and ballot boxes, Secretary-General Puchong Nutrawong told reporters.
In the south, where the main opposition Democrat Party has its power base, "demonstrators are still blocking post offices in Chumporn, Songkhla and Nakhon Si Thammarat," Puchong said. The Democrats are boycotting the election.
The poll results may not be certified for months, with a series of by-elections needed in districts where advance voting was disrupted last weekend, as well as any areas blockaded by demonstrators tomorrow, Election Commission Chairman Supachai Somcharoen said yesterday.
A disputed poll will leave Yingluck's administration in caretaker mode, complicating its efforts to raise funds to pay rice farmers under a state subsidy program. Suthep Thaugsuban, a former Democrat powerbroker who has led a three-month street campaign to oust Yingluck, said the election will be annulled because his group blocked candidates from registering in some provinces and shut down polling stations during advance voting.
Laksi Clash
An afternoon clash between pro- and anti-government groups at Laksi intersection in suburban Bangkok involved explosive devices and gunfire, according to the Bangkok Emergency Medical Service's website. Six people were injured and taken to the hospital, it said.
Protesters are occupying several major intersections in the city in a bid to prevent Yingluck's government from functioning.
"We will not block the vote," Suthep told supporters late yesterday, urging them to join peaceful street demonstrations in Bangkok on election day. "We are confident that the election will be annulled. Still, anyone who has blocked ballot distribution centers, please continue to do it."
Suthep says he speaks for a "silent majority" who don't want elections until Yingluck is replaced with an appointed council that would erase what they call her family's corrupting political influence. Yingluck says such a council would be undemocratic and an affront to the almost 16 million people who elected her in 2011.
Yingluck is deploying 10,000 police in Bangkok alone, having declared a state of emergency, as she seeks to avoid a repeat of the violence that obstructed advance voting on Jan. 26 in the south and most of the capital. Ten people have been killed and more than 500 injured since protests began Oct. 31.
Soldiers Deployed
More than 5,000 soldiers will assist police across Bangkok, with 60 joint checkpoints, Thammanoon Vithi, deputy commander for the Second Infantry Division, told reporters today after visiting polling stations around the area where Yingluck will vote. Army Chief Prayuth Chan-Ocha has asked troops to carry out their duties carefully. "The army chief wants us to monitor and watch out," Thammanoon said.
Yingluck today called on anti-government groups to respect people's right to vote. "I want to ask for cooperation from everyone to be patient, to talk to each other to prevent any clash which may lead to violence," she told reporters. "I want to beg people not to block the vote because that will make us unable to answer questions from the international community."
Parliament Threshold
The Election Commission had called on the government to delay the poll, warning the political situation was too tense for the vote to be held peacefully. Yingluck and her advisers said it was not in their power to do so, and the government has accused the commission of trying to undermine the poll.
Suthep's protesters prevented candidates from registering to contest at least 28 seats in the lower house, meaning that no matter what happens tomorrow, the threshold of 475 out of 500 seats for a quorum will not be met and a government can't be formed. The Election Commission has said it may be three to four months before parliament will be able to open.
With no new government in place, Yingluck would remain in a caretaker role. Yingluck and her government also face a series of legal challenges to her rule, while police have issued warrants against Suthep related to the recent protests.
Yingluck called the elections on Dec. 9, a day after members of the Democrat Party resigned from parliament en masse to join their former colleagues in the protest movement, which began in disapproval of an amnesty bill that would have let the prime minister's brother, Thaksin Shinawatra, return to Thailand. Thaksin, ousted in a 2006 coup, has chosen to live overseas after fleeing a two-year jail term for corruption.
Rice Program
The Democrats say an election wouldn't be fair because Thaksin bought the loyalty of poor voters while in power.
The opposition has criticized the government's program to boost rural incomes by buying rice at above-market rates, which cost taxpayers $21 billion in the past two crop years starting October 2011. The program has accumulated losses of 200 billion baht ($6.1 billion) a year, according to estimates from the World Bank.
Thaksin's political allies, who have won the past five elections, say their popularity is based on policies that have improved the lives of millions, particularly those in the north and northeast. The Democrats have not won a national poll since 1992.
The Democrats previously boycotted a ballot in April 2006, when Thaksin was prime minister, on the grounds the political system needed reform. That vote was invalidated when a court found Thaksin's party guilty of violating election laws. Thaksin was ousted before another election could be held.
To contact the reporters on this story: Suttinee Yuvejwattana in Bangkok at suttinee1@bloomberg.net; Anuchit Nguyen in Bangkok at anguyen@bloomberg.net
To contact the editor responsible for this story: Rosalind Mathieson at rmathieson3@bloomberg.net
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