Hopes for change on hold

[rooster59]

Hopes for change on hold

By The Nation

 

The Future Forward Party, which made an impressive debut, finishing as the third-most popular choice with more than 6.2 million votes and more than 80 House seats, is composed entirely of new faces. Photo/EPA

 

Electoral convolutions resulted in little actual political change – and even less room for claims of legitimacy

 

While last weekend's election seems unlikely to lift the Kingdom out of its deep political divide, it has at least exposed new catalysts for change, with voters choosing many young faces to try and brighten the future. 

The electoral system was apparently designed to limit the size of political parties – ensuring none was big enough to dominate the House of Representatives. 

 

According to the latest figures from the Election Commission, no party won a landslide victory. The party that won the greatest number of seats – be it Pheu Thai or Phalang Pracharat – will eventually have slightly more than a quarter of the 500 seats in the Lower House, which will stop them from setting up a single-party government. 

 

The Thaksin Shinawatra camp, which has dominated previous elections, failed to retain that advantage after the Thai Raksa Chart was disbanded a mere two weeks before election day. The party had been set up to focus on the mixed-member appointment system while its sister party Pheu Thai concentrated on constituency seats. 

 

Now, with Thai Raksa Chart gone, Pheu Thai has no party-list seats. Meanwhile, though the pro-junta Phalang Pracharat won few constituency seats, it will still benefit from the altered electoral system, which many analysts say was designed to allow the junta to perpetuate power. 

 

Though this election was perhaps one of the longest-awaited in recent memory, the 75 per cent turnout was not abnormal. The same ratio of voters had came out in July 2011. 

 

Of the 51 million eligible voters this time, the majority (38.1 per cent) was between 26 and 45 years old, while 7.3 million (14.3 per cent) were first-time voters aged between 18 and 25. 

 

Many first-time voters told The Nation Weekend they exercised their right to vote in the hope of bringing about change, even though they suspected it was a virtual lost cause in this election. 

 

“This election won’t trigger any changes because it was designed by people who want the status quo to continue,” said a first-time voter, asking to be identified only as Phon. 

 

“But I hope it spurs more conversation about the country’s future, which might lead to whoever is ruling becoming more responsible or even giving us another chance to vote – on a more level playing field.” 

 

Generally, the successful candidates are not really young, with an average age of 52. The party with the oldest candidates – average 55 – is Pheu Thai, followed by Phalang Pracharat (53) and the Democrats (52). The rookie Future Forward Party stands to have a relatively younger representation in the House, averaging 45 years old. The Commoners Party, with candidates averaging 43 years old, won no seats in the election. 

 

Future Forward co-founder Taopiphob Limjittrakorn said young voters chose him because they were “bored” with the established elite. The young maker of craft beer entered politics with the hope of breaking up business monopolies and helping reshape the political landscape. 

 

Smashing through

 

He managed to smash his way through in Bangkok’s Klong San constituency, defeating heavyweight Democrat candidate and former MP Suran Chanpitak.

 

The Democrats, the oldest Thai party, suffered a major setback last weekend, losing its strongholds in the capital and most of the South. Party leader Abhisit Vejjajiva stepped down to accept responsibility for the defeat. 

 

Many observers said the Democrats lost votes to Phalang Pracharat in Bangkok and the South because Abhisit refused to help Prayut Chan-o-cha retain power. The pro-junta party won a lot of seats in the upper Central region and lower North. 

 

However, Phalang Pracharat’s victory and the Democrats’ defeat made little difference in the political landscape because they appear to be sticking together. 

 

Pheu Thai, meanwhile, managed to hang on to its strongholds in the far North and Northeast, but was unable to take the largest northeastern province, Nakhon Ratchasima, because Phalang Pracharat had poached some of its MPs from that area. 

 

 

Yada yavarakanon is among dozens of Phalang Pracharat's fresh face MPs.

 

Unlike Future Forward, which won a surprise victory among young voters, Phalang Pracharat emerged as the most successful newcomer in the election – especially since it managed to take advantage of the privileges embedded in the revised electoral law. 

 

Its PM candidate is the incumbent and the party cleverly used the name of the junta’s pet project, Pracharat, in its branding. 

 

In the big picture, this election is unlikely to end the chronic polarisation, with both pro- and anti-junta camps, led by Phalang Pracharat and Pheu Thai respectively, compete to claim legitimacy to form a government.

 

Source: http://www.nationmultimedia.com/detail/politics/30366808

 

-- © Copyright The Nation 2019-03-30

 

[Samui Bodoh]

"...In the big picture, this election is unlikely to end the chronic polarisation, with both pro- and anti-junta camps, led by Phalang Pracharat and Pheu Thai respectively, compete to claim legitimacy to form a government..."

 

This is a false comparison.

 

Phalang Pracharat had ALL the advantages of endless government largess, HUGE populist spending, the "Mobile Cabinet Meetings", the power of "Incumbency", the military trying to influence things at every turn, the use of the 'Legal system' to attack their opponents, the ability to have lavish fund-raising dinners without sanction, the ability to begin their campaign a year in advance of others, a new electoral system designed to aid them, A complicit EC, the weekly free TV time, etc, etc etc, yet they still did not 'win'; their claim to "legitimacy" is based on cheating.

 

The lesson here is that no matter how much the Green/Yellow coalition cheats, they cannot win.

 

So, they try to cheat more...

 

They are cheating cheaters who cheat. Over and over and over and over again they cheat.

 

They are a plague on the Kingdom.

 

 

[YetAnother]

15 minutes ago, rooster59 said:

“This election won’t trigger any changes because it was designed by people who want the status quo to continue"

of course, but neglects that this is a victory for the military, which further entrenches them in thai society at the expense of change; we will end up with generals as ministers and all their cronies in their organizations and in all 'independent' government bodies; and along with the attendant 'indirect' influence over judiciary and all things authoritative thai

[soalbundy]

2 hours ago, YetAnother said:

of course, but neglects that this is a victory for the military, which further entrenches them in thai society at the expense of change; we will end up with generals as ministers and all their cronies in their organizations and in all 'independent' government bodies; and along with the attendant 'indirect' influence over judiciary and all things authoritative thai

Got to have somewhere for all those retired generals to go. This is going to end up being fought out on the street, not now, not tomorrow but give it a couple of years and up will go the barricades and the smell of cordite and tear gas will waft down the streets of Bangkok again.

[Srikcir]

3 hours ago, rooster59 said:

pro- and anti-junta camps, led by Phalang Pracharat and Pheu Thai respectively, compete to claim legitimacy to form a government.

No different than in the past when it was pro-junta Democrats vs anti-junta PTP.

Name have changed but not the game.

And for that the Thai people waited almost five for another election?

[Odysseus123]

3 hours ago, Samui Bodoh said:

"...In the big picture, this election is unlikely to end the chronic polarisation, with both pro- and anti-junta camps, led by Phalang Pracharat and Pheu Thai respectively, compete to claim legitimacy to form a government..."

 

This is a false comparison.

 

Phalang Pracharat had ALL the advantages of endless government largess, HUGE populist spending, the "Mobile Cabinet Meetings", the power of "Incumbency", the military trying to influence things at every turn, the use of the 'Legal system' to attack their opponents, the ability to have lavish fund-raising dinners without sanction, the ability to begin their campaign a year in advance of others, a new electoral system designed to aid them, A complicit EC, the weekly free TV time, etc, etc etc, yet they still did not 'win'; their claim to "legitimacy" is based on cheating.

 

The lesson here is that no matter how much the Green/Yellow coalition cheats, they cannot win.

 

So, they try to cheat more...

 

They are cheating cheaters who cheat. Over and over and over and over again they cheat.

 

They are a plague on the Kingdom.

 

 

"This is a false comparison".

 

Indeed it is..so much so that one assumes that the writer was blushing in embarrassment whilst concocting the article.