Asia Pacific Determined Voters in Thailand Ready to Repel Protesters By THOMAS FULLERJAN. 31, 2014 BANGKOK — All of the extreme emotions, the fears of lawlessness and the concerns about violence breaking out in Sunday’s election in Thailand are on display in a community called Lat Krabang, a few minutes’ drive from the main international airport here. Protesters battling to overthrow the government of Prime Minister Yingluck Shinawatra have vowed to stop the election, but residents here have banded together and say they are preparing to repel anyone who tries to prevent them from voting. “We will not yield to them anymore,” said Chalem Morse, 70, who last Sunday watched as protesters tried to disrupt advance voting, then saw angry residents kick and punch one of the demonstrators. “I will definitely cast my vote.” The election on Sunday will by no means resolve Thailand’s debilitating power struggle between supporters of Ms. Yingluck and her opponents, who want to banish her and her family from politics — particularly her brother, Thaksin Shinawatra, a tycoon and former prime minister who lives abroad but is believed to still have great influence over government policies.The opposition, led by the Democrat Party, which is boycotting the election, says it will challenge the validity of the vote. And even if the courts uphold the election, it will be months before a government can be formed, because subsequent smaller elections will be required in districts where protesters have blocked the registration of candidates. Many observers use the term “power vacuum” to describe the lack of leadership in a country in political deadlock. The collective action by residents in Lat Krabang is a stark symbol of how the once-routine act of voting in Thailand can now require the muscle and organization of a community simply to ensure that citizens arrive at polling places unimpeded. Residents here say they will be drawing on their experience from last Sunday’s advance voting, when a convoy of about 100 protesters arrived in Lat Krabang and blocked the polling place’s entrance with a large truck. The neighborhood, once home to a Thai boxing school, was a risky choice for the protesters, who were met by angry residents trained in the martial art of Muay Thai. A scuffle broke out, and a protester who was kicked in the head was taken to a hospital. Five days later, Kittichai, a former Thai boxer who gave only his first name, displayed a welt on his foot that he said came from the kick to the protester’s forehead. Mr. Kittichai said the protester had taunted them. “He said, ‘If you really want to vote, you’ll have to come see me first,’ ” Mr. Kittichai recounted. “So we granted his request.” Lt. Col. Sayan Petyeunyong, the deputy commander of the local police station, said police units escorted the protesters from the area after they pleaded for protection. “When they arrived they were very loud — they said, ‘Don’t make us upset!’ ” Colonel Sayan said. “But when they left, they were scared and very quiet.” Video of protesters being escorted by the police circulated on the Internet, quickly becoming known as the “Lat Krabang model,” and the images were promoted as a way for communities to protect polling places from sabotage. Colonel Sayan said the police would be out in force on Sunday to prevent violence. But he predicted that protesters would use different tactics this time and try to block the delivery of ballots instead of the polling places themselves. More than 90,000 polling places will be open on Sunday, and at the majority of them, especially in the north and northeast, the authorities do not expect any disturbances. But the protest leader, Suthep Thaugsuban, a former executive in the Democrat Party, has vowed to obstruct the election in Bangkok and southern Thailand. Blocking the election is justified, he says, to prevent Ms. Yingluck, whose party is popular in the country’s north and northeast, from winning another term. Protesters this past week blocked postal centers in southern Thailand to prevent ballots from being delivered. The election is unusual by any standard. Preoccupied with the protests in recent weeks and uncertain that the election would go ahead, candidates have done relatively little campaigning and have thin platforms, if any at all. Although the Democrats, the oldest political party in the country, are boycotting the election, the Thai news media have highlighted the question of whether the party’s leaders, including its head, Abhisit Vejjajiva, a former prime minister, will vote. Thai law bars people from office if they did not vote in the previous election. Thai Rath, Thailand’s largest newspaper by circulation, called the Democrats who planned to vote “hypocritical” because they have been supporting protesters who are trying to stop the elections, but would be “stamping their legitimacy on the electoral process” by voting. “People have been killed in the game of obstructing people from voting,” the newspaper said, referring to the 10 people who have died in two months of street demonstrations. Hundreds more have been injured. The Democrats are the only party boycotting the elections. More than 50 parties have registered candidates, including one run by Chuwit Kamolvisit, a businessman and lawmaker whose party is angling to replace the Democrats as the country’s opposition in Parliament. Mr. Chuwit has described the protests as the most “shameless” attempt to grab power in the country’s history. “I would like to introduce myself as the parliamentary opposition as opposed to the street opposition,” he wrote in a Facebook posting recently. Somchai Srisuthiyakorn, a member of the Election Commission who has been accused of siding with the protest movement, wrote on his Facebook page Thursday that the election might produce “the lowest turnout in Thai history” and be an “embarrassment.” A version of this article appears in print on February 1, 2014, on page A4 of the New York edition with the headline: Determined Voters in Thailand Ready to Repel Protesters. Order Reprints|Todays Paper|Subscribe
Posted on: Sat, 01 Feb 2014 05:51:43 +0000
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