Thailand Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra yesterday issued a war cry to his supporters and threw down the gauntlet to his opponents by pledging not to become premier if his party receives fewer votes than the number of abstentions and votes against him.

"If my party receive less votes than the number of people abstaining combined with votes for smaller parties, I will not accept the premiership." […]

"I beg the three opposition parties, Democrat, Chat Thai and Mahachon [which have announced a boycott of the election], to join the contest. If they really insist on a boycott, they can campaign for voters to mark ‘abstention’ to reject me."

In Thailand, voters are allowed to cast a "no vote" on their ballot card to show they do not approve of any candidate.

However, former Prime Minister Chuan Leekpai, who had earlier admitted that he was against the idea of boycotting the poll, has backed Democrat Party leader Abhisit Vejjajiva’s decision to boycot the April 2 snap election, saying the decision is democratic.

"I believe Khun Abhisit made the right decision. I told him that I will support him and the party." […]

"The Thai Rak Thai Party (the ruling party) has a new motto to promote democracy and keep the country’s rules and laws. This means that for the past five years, the Thaksin administration did not (upkeep) these principles."

Earlier, the opposition parties had decided on a boycott as they believed a fair election is impossible without political reform as Thaksin controlled political institutions designed to be independent.

As much as I admire the unity of opposition parties, one have to salute the fighting spirit of Thaksin.

He may be down, but definitely not gone yet.

Not for now, at least.

Thanks Berita Malaysia’s YW Loke for the alert.

Permalink | Leave a comment | Trackback
Subscribe to Email Feed | Subscribe to RSS Feed