rickirs

Such naivity. Does anyone really think that Suthep has changed his tactics or desire to take over the government? Do you see anywhere that Suthep has agreed to the April re-runs? Suthep WILL again block candidate registration and voting venues. And again the EC will stand helpless as cry babies and the police will again stand BEHIND the demonstrators for fear of violence. Very vulnerable times for Thailand's infant democracy.

Police who FEAR resistence in making an arrest are not police. Thai police would be more useful as rice laborers or sidewalk sweepers. One thing no one can ever accuse Thailand police now of being is applying excess use of force. But isn't it odd that when the Democrats were in power, the police never hesitated to use force on public demonstators? There is something fundamentally wrong with the Thai police force that it will not uphold the law; yes, the law created under the Democrat regime and not a device created by the PTP.

As i said before, Sharon...

Talks with that Snake will be pointless, she will just lie through her teeth, say she doesn't know about that subject and insist Suthep 'waits for the proper time'

Suthep is right to stand strong against this Champion of Corruption... the sooner the NACC lay charges against her the better...

... but looking at the latest from the EC, they say they will hold the elections in the failed districts towards the end of April (27th?) - but isn't "D-Day" for Yingluck as caretaker the 1st April?

Have you ever tried to save someone drowning in the sea/pool? They try and drag you down with them in their panic... who's going down with YL i wonder?

First of all, who is Sharon?

Assuming you mean me, my name is SHANNON. Not Sharon.

Second, Yingluck will lose caretaker status on April 1, you are correct. In that case, as stated in Article 3 of the Constitution, the sovereign power temporarily entrusted to the government via the electoral process will be handed back to the people. And since a country cannot function without a government, a new prime minister can be appointed to form an interim government via Article 7 of the Constitution. The president of the Senate will forward the name of the candidate to serve as Thailand's next prime minister to His Majesty the King for royal endorsement.

The president of the Senate is Mr. Nikom Wairatpanij:

http://www.thai-senate.com/in/english/former_president_id.php?id_data=125

Mr. Nikom Wairatpanij has close ties with the Puea Thai party.

So whatever ship you think is sinking on April 1, it's not the Puea Thai ship, so you might be on the wrong ship.

Mr. Nikom Wairatpanij has close ties with the Puea Thai party.

So whatever ship you think is sinking on April 1, it's not the Puea Thai ship, so you might be on the wrong ship.

All which goes to show just how corrupt the system is! because by you're words the implication is that PTP will have the next caretaker PM come April 1st, regardless!

Yet you come here and try to claim that PTP are democratic, that it is Suthep who is being belligerent in the face of talks to resolve the situation.

Well Shannon T (shame you don't get the Sharon quip) like your friend pipkin! you have a right to your view, the fact that it comes across as a hard sell trying to convince others of their error, rather than offering good debate, failure to admit the corruption of PTP, but then proving the corruption exists!

you either need to try a lot harder or accept that many here do not buy into the twisted lies from truths, that you and pipkin espouse on here. But thanks for making it more entertaining, I dare say without you and pipkin the news forum would be a bit dull without all the repetitiveness etc! alt=whistling.gif width=19 height=18>

If this system is corrupt as you say, then one must find those who created it to be equally if not more corrupt - the Democrats. Memories are short I guess when you fall out of power.

As i said before, Sharon...

Talks with that Snake will be pointless, she will just lie through her teeth, say she doesn't know about that subject and insist Suthep 'waits for the proper time'

Suthep is right to stand strong against this Champion of Corruption... the sooner the NACC lay charges against her the better...

... but looking at the latest from the EC, they say they will hold the elections in the failed districts towards the end of April (27th?) - but isn't "D-Day" for Yingluck as caretaker the 1st April?

Have you ever tried to save someone drowning in the sea/pool? They try and drag you down with them in their panic... who's going down with YL i wonder?

First of all, who is Sharon?

Assuming you mean me, my name is SHANNON. Not Sharon.

Second, Yingluck will lose caretaker status on April 1, you are correct. In that case, as stated in Article 3 of the Constitution, the sovereign power temporarily entrusted to the government via the electoral process will be handed back to the people. And since a country cannot function without a government, a new prime minister can be appointed to form an interim government via Article 7 of the Constitution. The president of the Senate will forward the name of the candidate to serve as Thailand's next prime minister to His Majesty the King for royal endorsement.

The president of the Senate is Mr. Nikom Wairatpanij:

http://www.thai-senate.com/in/english/former_president_id.php?id_data=125

Mr. Nikom Wairatpanij has close ties with the Puea Thai party.

So whatever ship you think is sinking on April 1, it's not the Puea Thai ship, so you might be on the wrong ship.

Than you can tell us, why the current Government want change the constitiution for get an elected senate. That the president go to HMK means not, that he decide who it is... alt=cheesy.gif width=32 height=20>

Trying to decipher your question I think you are asking why should the PTP go through the trouble of trying to get an elected Senate when it already controls the Senate Presidency? A good question (assuming I figured it correctly) as why would PTP risk losing the Senate Presidency through an electio?. The answer may be that an elected Senate makes for a more complete democracy in which ALL of Parliament officials in both the Senate and House are elected by the Thai People and accountable to them for their performance or lack thereof. Are you familiar with this form of democratic goverance?

Gosh, seems so simple to fix. But the Dems dont care about reform, they Only care about Yingluk resigning and their setup of a power grab. If not, both sides would be talking.

Yingluck has offered direct talks but he refused.

Just shows he is not interested in a peaceful solution.

If they just talked together maybe a solution could be found.

Really!

I'm pretty sure that Yingluck never turned up at any meetings.

Sent from my Nexus 4 using Thaivisa Connect Thailand mobile app

Hard for Yingluck to go to meetings that don't exist or where Suthep has threatened her with kidnapping to "physically remove" her from office.

Gosh, seems so simple to fix. But the Dems dont care about reform, they Only care about Yingluk resigning and their setup of a power grab. If not, both sides would be talking.

Talks are the best way to go. But the current government has never been interested in this. Or these problems would have been resolved years ago. It takes 2 to tango. Not just one. Give and take is required.

And what pray tell does Suhtep give up, dreams of being a dictator?

"Pheu Thai Party rejects Thaksin overture for talks with protesters" Time & time again the The nation's headlines are misdirected from the content. There is no basis that Thaksin asked for talks, only "reported" to ask. Given recent behavior of the Democrats and Suthep in particular, there is no basis for reasonable and productive talks while maintaining the status quo of the PTP government. And for Thaksin to suggest such talks is inconsistent with current PTP strategy; a strategy that some think directed by Thaksin.

Talks is the only way to resolve problems in a normal society. Violence and and anarchy are not the way.

So is voting and participating in the governing process.

If the government does get the bank loans, it will be a game changer for Suthep. He can no longer call the rice program a corrupt scheme or he would have to also accuse the banks as accessories to such corruption. And Suthep loses his appeal to the farmers that he was relying on to reinvigorate his own deminishing anti-government protests. For the sake of the rice farmers I hope the government can meet its financial obligations, politics or not. Let not their lives continue as pawns in political struggles between the Democrats and the PTP. They deserve the fruits of their labor and happy lives.

It will be interesting to see how creative NACC can be to find the administration guilty of any corruption when 1) almost no rice has been sold, and 2) the government has no funds to pay for for the unsold rice. Just exactly where does the corruption aspect come in? China cancels a large order because of Suthep's prolonged protests, the government has no ability to finance rice purchases because of lack of authority under interim goverance, and has offred farmers to take back their rice to sell it for themselves. What proceeds that have been received largely (70%) benefit the high and middle income class farmers. It seems what people are calling "corruption" is that the rice program failed in its objectives. How is that criminal?

Firstly, who is Abhisit to say anything.

He and his Democrat Party deliberately boycotted the election process and have been seen supporting the PDRC who have shut down elections in some places.

He and the Democrat Party now have no right to demand anything.

But as you can see on the streets, there are hardly any protestors left. Sometimes just 1 or 2 people at a protest site. They are rapidly losing momentum and everyone is getting fed up of them. They are trying hard to spin in the media the farmers are joining them, however you only see a few hundred farmers and even then the farmers say they only want their money, nothing political.

So yes, I fully expect the Democrat Party and Abhisit to now start to quickly push and push for negotiation and a new election as the PDRC are running out of steam and everyone is bored of them.

But of course, at this moment in time is PTP's weakest point, in another month or two when the farmers are sorted out then they will be much stronger again, so yes, the Democrats will now rush to the table to negotiate - however PTP will simply carry on with asking the EC to do their job and run the byelections to get 95% quorom

.

So in a simplistic manner :

Now is the best time for the Democrat Party (DP) to negotiate and have an election.

Now is the worst time for PTP to have a new election.

If PTP negotiates and agrees to a new election DP will have won.

If PTP allows the protests to carry on and demands the EC to do their job - things will get better for PTP as more farmers are paid and more people hate the protestors.

If PTP forces the EC to do their job and there is a Judicial Coup, then PTP will gain massively as they can once again claim the courts are on the Democrat Party/Elites side.

If PTP forces the EC to do their job and there is a Military Coup, then PTP will gain massively as they can once again claim the Military are on the Democrat Party/Elites side.

So I can see the situation is stalemate as PTP will want to complete the Feb 2nd elections and the Democrat Party/PDRC must do everything they can to stop it - BUT - the only way out for the Democrats without giving massive support to PTP as everyone will hate a judicial or military coup - is to get PTP to willingly hold a new election. But PTP would be mad to do that, they want to finish Feb 2nd election or force the EC/CC to pull off a judicial coup and annul it - which will anger about 75% of the population and kill the Democrat Party and be beneficial to PTP, while at the same time invoking the wrath of the world and the international media against the PDRC/DP/Elites for yet another staged and manipulated judicial coup to usurp Democracy and Elections. Also at that time PTP will likely complain to the UN and draw the worlds focus on to the Thai Constitution and any verdict of the CC if its biased.

So I expect the anti government media to be full on with how PTP should negotiate and hold new elections against the Democrats.....................and I expect lots of hate in the anti-government media because PTP will simply say Feb 2nd elections must be completed - sorry - complete Feb 2nd elections then reform. It was the Democrats decision to boycott it and now they must be punished for the selfish, arrogant stupidity.

All in my opinion of course.

Nailed it !!! Great analysis, not a shred of hate, sarcasm, or bias.

As in this quote....."Four wishes of the people"?....Since when are these electoral minority coup-mongers and their shadowy supporters "The people"?........The people spoke on Feb. 2nd. and he is so afraid of what they said. He wants to 'deep-six' their opinion.

The people (most of them) voted already.

43 million (roughly) of the population were eligible to vote, yet only 20 million (roughly) did so out of a population of 70 million or so. That's less than 30% of the entire population. And (let's say) PT got around 50% of that vote, it means PT are only approved by around 15% of the population.

Is my maths correct? Did "the people" really vote for PT this time around?

How many votes did the Democrats get....oops.

Abhisit proposing five (5) reforms not four as he states. Abhisit would of course be part of the "neutral" reform committee. The reform committee should be designated by the people in each province. 77 provinces represented. Number of delegates from each province based on the population. Thais should also be putting ordinary Thais in the delegations , you know those with no teeth and no money. They are Thais right and they have the right to vote and to determine the priorities of their future.

And how are reform members "designated?" Certainly not by a vote sonce Suthep will block any democratic voting process.

Does Abhisit have permission to speak without a note from Suthep? Who cares what Abhisit says about anything? He said he was going to exercise his constitutional right to vote, then didn't. I'd like to hear from Suthep what HE proposes as he is the one who makes decisions for the Democrat party.

Surely no country in the world would be so stupid and short sighted to set up a set of rules that put itself in a situation whereby the basic infrastructure can't function due to a mere political issue ?

In the USA the Republican Party congressionment shutdown the government for 2 weeks in 2013, causing all civil service employees and government contractors to be taken off their jobs. However, active duty military were exempt as were some "critical" functions like the border patrol. Some employees were ordered to continue working without pay. A month later all employees were given backpay.

You can tell that the property belongs to Buddha Issara because that;s his face on the gate.

Nice wristwatch on the arm of the accuser in the picture. Wonder how much that cost and where did those funds come from?

And what about the shirt, pants and glasses? It all must spell corruption right? Not like someone who dresses like and pretends to be a monk.

Maybe those remaining PDRC leaders should seek asylum in a Western embassy. Oh wait, maybe it wasn't such a smart thing after all trying to overthrow a democratic government.

Great news. I bet the others are less cocky now. I have a bottle of champagne waiting for the day I see Suthep in leg shackles.

You must lead a sad life if you would open a bottle of Champagne over something that is nothing to do with you

A dedicated alcohollic needs no reason to drink.

Now we shall come to dread the knock on the door in the night

This action may well be the opening of the can of worms that will lead to blood on the streets.

Democracy is being sacrificed on the Shinwatra high altar

Better than democracy being sacrificed on Suthep's insurrection? Suthep is the one who opened the "can of worms". Let's see if he can take the "heat" (an acronym for "police").

Using the building blocks of technology to improve people's lives.

In terms of going to the polls again, the Pheu Thai has a long-held belief that it is invincible.

However, these last polls have revealed that they are in fact on the way out. 8 million votes won't get them elected.

I think the protesters, EC and the Dems may have got their heads together on this one and come to the conclusion that 'reforms before elections' is not getting them anywhere.

I can see the CC ruling that new nationwide elections should be held, and the Dems will run. That is what this article seems to be paving the way for in my interpretation of it.

with their assured 11 million plus votes and whatever else they can mop up from the disenfranchised EX-voters of the PTP, should see them pretty much run away with it.

You cite a reasonable scenario except that Suthep has NEVER, NEVER agreed to participating in any election prior to establishing HIS corrpution and voting reforms that will require elections to be suspended up to 18 months and Yingluck's administration to be disbanded immediately. Suthep will not take a chance on open democratic elections until he can predict with certainty that Democrats will win.

Let's just have a proper election and be done with it.

Suthep won't stop protesting, Abhisit won't put the Democrats up for election, third party candidates that would have taken Democrat votes were blocked by PDRC in the South, they didn't want any fresh opposition party stealing their votes.

So a new election won't fix anything, EC will still close down polling stations as soon as PDRC protests appear, EC will still close registrations without trying to register candidates like they did in the south. EC will still refused to ask the army or police to clear the post office so ballot papers can go out.

EC does not have the legal power to demand fresh elections. The CC already ruled that both EC and Government need to approve an election restart by getting a new decree. So EC is simply asking the same question again.

Under section 236/6, the EC is required to hold referendums

Section 236. The Election Commission shall have the following powers and duties:

(6) to order a new election or a new voting at a referendum to be held in any or all polling stations when there occurs convincing evidence that the election or the voting at a referendum in that or those polling stations has not proceeded in an honest and fair manner;

Notice the part I underlined. EC has a duty to hold fresh referendums.

The converse of this is that the EC does not have the power to order referendums in polling stations where the election were held in an honest and fair manner. In other words EC cannot simply demand fresh elections everywhere.

One last point, this is not the first time EC has had to register candidates in a seat and hold a by-election. It's common. People die, people get banned or resign. By-elections are common and frequent. Don Muang last June for example. EC is pretending it has no authority, but it is common practice and also law. If it doesn't have authority to run these by-elections, how did it have the authority the hundreds of times it ran them previously?! Unprecedented? Nope!

A vey thorough analysis solely missed in these discussions. Suthep cannot afford ANY election where the Democrats risk losing. Failing a coup, he wants to guarantee his party's election to Parliament and needs time to rig "reforms" that will paralize the PTP. And this can only be done through his people's committee taht will become a de facto unelected government for an unspecified time. The EC in contrast seems to do everything it can to stall and obstruct the government, all the while relying on an unreasonable change in Suthep's strategy to bypass any election.

Thai politics: "A problem for every Solution"

they just cant deal with reality and responsibilty dave..its ingrained into the fabric of this society im afraid..

Exactly and how many times have we seen ' meetings ' and ' discussions ' amount to nothing more than a game of Pass The Parcel ?

The Constitutional Court seems to the court of last resort unless of course they find against the government in which case they are simply ignored.

Have you ever heard about someone who disagrees with the law or a court ruling but still abides by it? It's called freedom of speech. You and anti-Thaksin people keep harping about the Administration ignoring the Court's decision but what has the Administration actually done contrary to the Court's decisions? Answer: nothing. Though I have suspicions about a court established by the Democrat government that came to power through a coup would be able to provide any fair judgement towards the PTP administration elected by voters.

Don't do anything, Madam PM. Several posters on this forum have stated that the EC is setting a trap for you. Just hole up and wait; maybe it will go away. It has worked before because people in Thailand have a short political memory and are distracted by new events. My advise to you, Madam PM is to just lay low and hope for the best; not that you have a lot of choices left anyway.

While you mean to be sarcastic in your comments, "holing" up is just what the PTP needs to do. EC cannot escape its reponsibility to assure the elections are complete and trying to pass it off to the Court or the administration should be grounds to dissolve the EC...if there is such a process. EC has repeatedly shown it will no follow any process that aides the government in completeing the elections, even in accordance with the Constitution. Thai's do seem to have long memories and can remember the circumstances that led to the undemocratic overthrow of their election PM and parliament. And they have not yet forgotten Suthep's repeated calls for an unelected "shadow" government whose reforms will disenfranchise people's right to vote.