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Voting under way in Thailand, results to decide Thaksin's future+(Japan Economic Newswire Via Thomson Dialog NewsEdge)BANGKOK, April 2_(Kyodo) _ Thais began voting in a general election Sunday that is likely to be among the most unusual in the country's 64 years of constitutional democracy. The Sunday poll is critical for the political future of embattled Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra, who dissolved the 500-member House of Representatives and called the election three years ahead of the schedule after persistent street protests in the capital demanding he quit. Besides the early election call by a premier with a comfortable majority, this poll is also unusual because the three top opposition parties are boycotting it to protest what they see as Thaksin's unfair political maneuvering. Thaksin has repeatedly said he will not yield to "mob rule" and simply resign, but he has vowed to step aside if fewer than half the voters turn out to support him and his Thai Rak Thai Party on Sunday. Polling stations across the country opened at 8 a.m. for 45.2 million eligible voters. They close at 3 p.m. Vote counting will begin later in the evening, but it is widely expected that few, if any, results will be available by the end of the day. Unlike in previous elections, no exit polls are to be conducted Sunday. Candidates from Thai Rak Thai are standing uncontested for many of the 400 constituency seats because of the boycott by the top opposition parties. About a dozen smaller parties are in Sunday's race, but none can be said to offer much competition to Thai Rak Thai, particularly on the 100-seat proportionate list. The opposition parties have urged voters to cast abstentions to express their displeasure with Thaksin, whom they accuse of massive corruption, cronyism and abuse of power. And divisions are running deep. The opposition Democrat Party had to call off a planned campaign meeting Thursday night in Chiang Mai when thousands of pro-Thaksin demonstrators threw chairs, rotten eggs and debris onto the stage. Somjai Phagaphasvivat, a political scientist at Thammasat University, said, "Political confrontation will be prolonged...Thailand under the leadership of Thaksin has become polarized. (It) is heading toward a Latin American style of political development." On Friday, Thaksin urged his political opponents to "forget the past" and respect the April 2 outcome. "I will do my best to set up a national reconciliation government," he told reporters. Thaksin's party easily won a landslide in the February 2005 election for the lower chamber and in 2001 it won nearly half the seats in the lower house. Voters were then attracted by his populist policies such as cheap universal healthcare, a debt moratorium for farmers and billions of baht in soft loans to the rural poor. But official results in this election may be difficult in several areas, particularly in the south where sentiment against Thaksin runs especially high. A candidate must get a vote total equal to at least 20 percent of the number of people eligible to vote in a given constituency, even if that candidate runs unopposed. Because of the likelihood of several candidates failing to the get the 20 percent required under the election law, it may take several rounds of by-elections before a full parliament can vote on a new prime minister even Thai Rak Thai emerges with a high vote total. |