Exit Poll Results Show PPP Wins

[PadThaiGuy]

Selling a Communications business to Singapore?

Yes, It was his company, started long before he got into politics. Didn't belong to Thailand. The Junta propoganda made it sound like he sold an asset belonging to the Country. Wrong.

It was indeed his company, but why did it grow so much during his time as PM? Having introduced the village fund, what did the villagers do with their loans? Many bought mobile phones, which greatly boosted the value of Takkos company

Don't you imagine he had this in mind when he introduced the village fund? He was a very shrewd person. If you don't most Thai people do

Like I said......he was a billionair long BEFORE politics.

He was a such a good Prime Minister and businessman that the entire economy grew at rapid pace under his leadership. Thailand was a mess when he took office and was bailed out by the WMF. A loan that Thaksin paid off early.

Did you know the stock market doubled in 2003? Best performing market in the world I recall.

He has a few companies listed, so of course his net worth went up. Way up, along with anybody in the Thai stock market.

To say he cheated his way to the top proves you don't know what your talking about.

He was a billionaire before politics and a multi billionaire in politics.

He used his position to get richer.

If he got richer by abusing his position that is corruption.

Thats what so many people are upset about.

With PPP in power they are afraid it will be more of the same.

Yes Thailand PLC got richer whilst he was in power but little of it filtered down to the guy in the paddies.

Who is upset with Thaksin?

A minority of Thais.

A majority love the guy and the election results prove it AGAIN.

By the way, the guys in the rice paddys love him.

[lukamar]

little of it filtered down to the guy in the paddies.

If this is the case as you say, then why have they voted for him a third time? Oh, yes, they must be stupid, barefoot hicks.

Not stupid, just uneducated and easy prey for anyone using Taksins brand of nationalist, populist policies.

Now they will really be uneducated since the military installed NLA passed the University privatization bill, on the last day, that will soon make government universities like CMU unaccessible to the poor.

You guys just don't realize the elite likes them poor and uneducated - it's good for business, and they don't like them voting for people the elite don't support.

[cm-happy]

The village fund was created not for the villages to purchase cell phones but for them to buy booze and gamble and their land taken away by banks when the loans could not be paid off.

[Heng]

Of course, the Dems upped the village fund offer up to 2 million Baht per village. Brother Mark is likely scratching his head wondering "now why didn't those hicks vote for us this time?"

[onlooker]

Not sure why everyone is blaming Thaksin alone for selling Shin Corp to Temasek. The deal could only go ahead because SCB agreed to back the deal. Ina deal worth billions of dollars and one involving sellling important assets, the major shareholders of SCB will have given their go ahead for the deal.

The major shareholder in SCB is CPB. And who has final say in everything that the CPB does? . . . someone who cannot be mentioned.

Not everything is as simple as it seems in Thailand.

[Maxi101]

Someone has already posted about how the NE was devoid of vote buying

Not so, my brother in law got propositioned (ohh missis) for this this morning.

I am sure he is not alone......

But by which party was he propositioned?

Earlier posts had suggested that vote buying had been attempted by minor parties, but not the PPP.

Can you confirm that the PPP has done so with the brother in law?

And could red cards be issued to democrats for busing entire factories to the "early" voting? For military being ordered to vote democrat? (as has been suggested in reports)

Corruption is rampant by all parties it seems....and in particular by the "savior" junta (no one noticed their bank balances?)

The Thai people have voted for the party that they had twice elected by landslide....it comes as no surprise to me.

The military saviors have failed. Any bullshit from them or the militarily appointed election commission now would mean violence and blood in the streets in my opinion.

I hope they have the common sense to back off, and let the people have what they have soundly and overwhelmingly decided they want, for the good of the country......

....no matter how bad it may seem to be.

Just want to underline again,

Vote buying this time was really not necessary – why some people her don’t understand that.

At least here the Junta did a good job. (cynical)

[david96]

And again, yawn, the Chinese Thai control every single party so it doesn't really matter who you vote for. Democrats, PPP, it's the same game, it doesn't matter how much the parking attendants outside of the stadium in the parking lot bicker about it.

Correct. Remember the golden rule, he who has the gold makes the rules. Worldwide politics is about power, big business and money.

Politicians love to talk about "democracy" but when voted in act like dictators.

[SiriusBlack1]

I just hope the military will take the hint. Whatever the election may imply about Thaksin's legacy, this result was a repudiation of the September 2006 coup d'etat. The generals should respect what the people have told them and stay in their barracks.

[apetley]

little of it filtered down to the guy in the paddies.

If this is the case as you say, then why have they voted for him a third time? Oh, yes, they must be stupid, barefoot hicks.

Not stupid, just uneducated and easy prey for anyone using Taksins brand of nationalist, populist policies.

Now they will really be uneducated since the military installed NLA passed the University privatization bill, on the last day, that will soon make government universities like CMU unaccessible to the poor.

You guys just don't realize the elite likes them poor and uneducated - it's good for business, and they don't like them voting for people the elite don't support.

On the contrary, I realise just how much the elite, the corrupt and the all powerful want the poor and uneducated kept in their place. Be they PPP, an unelected military dictatorship or whatever.

What upsets alot of people is that with the PPP in power then the chance of an end to corruption, an end to poverty an end to low education standards in rural ares etc is just as remote as before.

Whether the alternative could have achieved those goals I am not sure, would be nice, imo, if they get the chance.

But hey, TIT, who knows what will transpire in the next week month.

[Ricardo]

It is way too early to say who will be the next PM, but I'd make a few comments, at this point :-

1. PPP/Samak/Thaksin will have got the most MPs, but not an overall majority, and much less than 50% of the vote. This is a major defeat for the party who had previously got an overwhelming result. Most people did not vote for Thaksin.

Thaksin's phone-call to Samak, congratulating him on 'winning the election', is typical spin, and may be very premature.

Samak's claim last night. that Prem was meeting leaders of minority-parties has not yet been confirmed, as far as I can see, by any of the media who will be camped outside Prem's house, and may also not be true.

PPP have promised that, if elected, there will be no divisive retribution against the military or coup leaders. A lot rides on whether the military feel that they can rely upon this promise.

2. The Democrats have had a record result, but also nowhere near a majority, however they certainly would have enough seats to form an effective opposition to the government, and this is more healthy than the old situation of a parliamentary-dictatorship with 75% of the seats.

3. The haggling for who will form a coalition government is now underway, one can only imagine the offers winging back and forth right now. Whoever can form a coalition will govern the country next, if this turns out to be the weaker parties working together instead of the largest single party, then that is democracy too. It happens elsewhere and it can happen here.

4. The high turnout is a credit to Thai democracy, also the peaceful nature of the campaign, and the vote-buying looks to have been less than in previous elections I've seen here. The military should be given some credit for this, as well as for holding the election, when they had promised to.

5. It is clear that the major split persists, in the country & electorate, which can only be a serious cause for concern.

Edited December 24, 2007 by Ricardo

[apetley]

I just hope the military will take the hint. Whatever the election may imply about Thaksin's legacy, this result was a repudiation of the September 2006 coup d'etat. The generals should respect what the people have told them and stay in their barracks.

Seconded and thirded.

[YoungAndRice]

And again, yawn, the Chinese Thai control every single party so it doesn't really matter who you vote for. Democrats, PPP, it's the same game, it doesn't matter how much the parking attendants outside of the stadium in the parking lot bicker about it.

Correct. Remember the golden rule, he who has the gold makes the rules. Worldwide politics is about power, big business and money.

Politicians love to talk about "democracy" but when voted in act like dictators.

the rich have a larger proportion of the pie. if the pie gets bigger, the rich get bigger. Thaskin is a businessman, imo, he realized that their would be more money for him to steal if the poor had more money.

no worries though, if the Dems win I am sure they will build extra tall , state of the art loud speakers in the north east to blast out songs for the King and his economic theories.

[Maxi101]

Bottom line is - if the elections were against the coup or about return of Thaksin - the majority clearly said NO. That majority might be split among several parties but it doesn't really matter. Pro Thaksin vote lost - they either should drop the agenda or admit the defeat and let the others form the government.

>>>>>>

Nothing can stop Prem from meeting party leaders, there's nothing illegal or sinister about it. I would expect Samak to have a word or two with Prem if HE gets the PM post, too. Though these two might not need to talk - they can pretty much read each other's minds anyway. The government MUST be seen as accepted in those quarters, and those quarters MUST show that the government is accepted, too, they can't show splits in that area.

Now why should they let the "others" form the government? In any democratic election that I've ever followed - and I've follwed several in a variety of countries - when there is a CLEAR LEADER but with no clear majority, the head of state is 'usually' obliged to offer the leading party the chance to form a Government. It's not a case of "Oh we don't like the poor people's party - cause they stink of Thaksin - so skip it and ask the nice rich Chinese Democrat guy."

Sorry pal - doesn't work that way. And if anyone tries to do that then ir reckon there could be some trouble. The way it 'usually' works is to let (in this case PPP) 'try' to govern, and it will become clear pretty soon whether or not they can (with partners). No one goes to the King or a President and says - "yep, me and Billy over here have a deal to form a minority Government."

The head of state leaves it up to winner to sort it out - if it doesn't work. The Government falls on 'co confidence' votes and off we go again to the polls.

That's why I say the rich/elites are freaking out - cause they KNOW they have to do a deal with the poor people...but they are still in denial...and THAT IS WORRYING!

Thats spot on !

[nickynomates]

And again, yawn, the Chinese Thai control every single party so it doesn't really matter who you vote for. Democrats, PPP, it's the same game, it doesn't matter how much the parking attendants outside of the stadium in the parking lot bicker about it.

Correct. Remember the golden rule, he who has the gold makes the rules. Worldwide politics is about power, big business and money.

Politicians love to talk about "democracy" but when voted in act like dictators.

the rich have a larger proportion of the pie. if the pie gets bigger, the rich get bigger. Thaskin is a businessman, imo, he realized that their would be more money for him to steal if the poor had more money.

no worries though, if the Dems win I am sure they will build extra tall , state of the art loud speakers in the north east to blast out songs for the King and his economic theories.

This is not a good day for Thailand.

The people of this country deserve better than this.

I am sorry to say that I can only see trouble ahead.

The average family are hurting financialy already.

Please read up on Samak history its not good.

Guns beat paper.

[Maxi101]

May I ask my fellow readers if I got this right:

To form a coalition, PPP needs to have a minimum of 241 house seats, right?!

It has, according to the latest results at http://203.150.244.10/reports/eng/index.php?showall=1& now 192 + 32 = 224 MPs. All he would need, is an additional 17 MPs to join the coalition. If Chart Thai is not willing to join, and they won't, then all they need is Pua Paendin. It'll be easy to entice them and the other 3 small parties and Samak would be the PM, although almost all of us would prefer to see Abhisit to take up the post. Looks like Samak knows what he is doing when he declared that he will be the next PM.

I just refreshed the site and it looks now that Samak would now need 3 more MPs. Unfortunately, looks to me as even if every other party would join the Democrats, they could never reach the majorityof 241 seats ...

Don't say that all word - it's democratical and I said already as I am no thai, that I don't have political preferences.

[Heng]

Guns are cheap and everyone has them.

[jumnien]

The rich Chinese Democrats didn't seem too worried this morning in Lumpini Park where they gathered as usual.

[Heng]

A good number of Bangkok elites side with the PPP as well the Democrats. And hint: none of them are more foreigner, Issanite, late bar closing, or endless Visa running friendly than the other.

[YoungAndRice]

so then Heng, in your Thai-Chinese opinion, what was the coup over and what do you think will happen in the near future?

[sriracha john]

I just hope the military will take the hint. Whatever the election may imply about Thaksin's legacy, this result was a repudiation of the September 2006 coup d'etat. The generals should respect what the people have told them and stay in their barracks.

Seconded and thirded.

How did you get to vote twice?

[LaoPo]

Four parties talk about forming coalition

The Democrat, Chart Thai, Puea Paendin, Ruam Jai Thai Chart Pattana have already talked about forming the next coalition, a source said.

But they will wait for election results before announcing their plan to form the coalition together.

The Nation

Unofficial results showed PPP wins 228 seats while its rival Democrat party gets 166 seats from a total of 480 seats of both constituency and party-list candidacy.

Chart Thai party wins 39 seats so far while Puea Pandin party gets 26 seats, Ruam Jai Thai Chart Pattana wins 10 seats, Matchimathipataya has 7 seats and Pracharaj has 4 seats.

..that makes 241 seats! There is hope!

That would be a 5 to 6 party -almost impossible- Coalition.....and how long will such a coalition last ?

Thailand will have a lot of elections to come....and that means more unrest and bad for the economy, apart from Democracy...

LaoPo

[apetley]

I just hope the military will take the hint. Whatever the election may imply about Thaksin's legacy, this result was a repudiation of the September 2006 coup d'etat. The generals should respect what the people have told them and stay in their barracks.

Seconded and thirded.

How did you get to vote twice?

Rampant vote buying in my household

[Heng]

so then Heng, in your Thai-Chinese opinion, what was the coup over and what do you think will happen in the near future?

I've mentioned it before: one group of Thai Chinese felt another group of Thai Chinese had had their turn at the buffet table for too long (with no end in sight). As to what will happen in the future, someone will have their turn, and the menu items will remain the same (anything and everything: all you can eat).

[selftaopath]

And again, yawn, the Chinese Thai control every single party so it doesn't really matter who you vote for. Democrats, PPP, it's the same game, it doesn't matter how much the parking attendants outside of the stadium in the parking lot bicker about it.

Correct. Remember the golden rule, he who has the gold makes the rules. Worldwide politics is about power, big business and money.

Politicians love to talk about "democracy" but when voted in act like dictators.

the rich have a larger proportion of the pie. if the pie gets bigger, the rich get bigger. Thaskin is a businessman, imo, he realized that their would be more money for him to steal if the poor had more money.

Toxic aka Thaskin is a businessman?? Humn guess my hearing really is going because I thought I heard he was a gangster and crook??? I think I better get a hearing aid.

no worries though, if the Dems win I am sure they will build extra tall , state of the art loud speakers in the north east to blast out songs for the King and his economic theories.

[YoungAndRice]

yep, thaskin is rich because he is corrupt and your nine year old could paint that funny picture with the weird colors in The Met and you could write novels better than Stephen King and sing better than Micheal Jackson you just choose not to...

etc. etc.

Edited December 24, 2007 by YoungAndRice

[KireB]

Seems that the pro-Thaksin camp has woken up.

To defend this man shows a great lack of intelligence.

Thaksin:

-war on drugs

-corruption as an art

-defamation trials against anyone with an opposite view

-nationalistic

-Shin deal, tax evation

-unaffordable populist schemes (30 baht health scheme)

-and most important: the average (average!!!!) household debt of the Thais has increased from 70,000 to 130,000 baht a capita,

The man creamed off the top of the money flow, threw in populist policies (bread and games Caesar!) and was cruising towards national bankrupcy.

The claim that the Thai economy was flourishing is bs; the Thais were and are clear under performers compared with its neighbors.

Stick your head in the sand if you wish!

[YoungAndRice]

so then Heng, in your Thai-Chinese opinion, what was the coup over and what do you think will happen in the near future?

I've mentioned it before: one group of Thai Chinese felt another group of Thai Chinese had had their turn at the buffet table for too long (with no end in sight). As to what will happen in the future, someone will have their turn, and the menu items will remain the same (anything and everything: all you can eat).

do you disagree with my statement that the rich have a bigger proportion of the pie and that if the pie gets bigger, the rich get richer... all the richest and most powerful people in the world come from 1st world countries and 1st world companies... so why don't the Thai Chinese realize that if they give the rural poor a break and take their boot off of their neck for a few minutes maybe Thailand would go from a back water country to a first world country?

[Maxi101]

It wont be long before the spoilers (read PAD and their behind the scenes backers) get going to cause trouble and incite the military to steal government again. How many elections is it going to take for the wealthy class and their cronies to realize the people have made their choices clear on Three separate occasions in a little over 2 years. Are they going to try for 4 in a row? This ridiculous repetition of coup/election, coup/election is making Thailand a laughing stock and damaging the country economically. How can democracy evolve and flourish when the military can march in and seize power, changing laws and appointing their own people into critical positions at any time they choose? The previous military dictatorship has set the stage for the next coup with the introduction of their internal security law.

The only way the country is ever going to progress into a genuine democracy is for the Democrats to wake up and follow the TRT and PPP lead by appealing to the greatest number of voters (who just happen to be the countries disadvantaged rural poor) rather than the wealthy upper class elite.

All the propaganda and discrediting court cases in the world are not going to cause the poor peasant class to embrace the Democrats when they have actually seen some real improvements in their quality of life under TRT. So long as the military is allowed to play one party off against the other, and so long as the political parties remain un-united in bringing the generals to heel, the coups are bound to continue.T

Certainly the Thai culture of entrenched corruption at almost every level of society is a great threat to a true working democracy, but the ever present threat of a military take over is an even greater obstacle. No democracy can grow where the military can seize power at will and make up new rules as they go.

The poor peasant class majority are using their democratic right to vote as a means of asking for a better deal for themselves and their children.

Anyone who knows anything about Thailand will know that there is a huge discrepancy in wealth and opportunity between the upper class elite and the poor peasant class. And that this discrepancy is largely defined by ethnicity with the Chinese Thais controlling most of the wealth and political power, while the Issarn Thais of Lao decent are severely disadvantaged in virtually every sense. When the Democrats finally realize that the road to Government is through attracting votes from the peasant class majority they may well have a chance. At the moment the Democrats voter support is mainly the middle and upper class who happen to be a minority. Not a good strategy to gain enough votes to win government. And reliance on the military to oust the democratically elected government in an effort to set the stage for win through the back door under conditions set by a biast military dictatorship has proven to be only very marginally successful.

Thaksin, who is himself one of the Chinese Thai elite was smart enough to figure out that in a democracy you need to appeal to the majority of voters.

Maybe the Democrats will figure it out too one day? I hope so, for the sake of the country.

A new day, people seemed to be sober ---- oh how I love that post.

Sincelery

Maxi

[SiriusBlack1]

Dunno if it's okay to post from Yahoo! News but here is the latest (I think?):

Pro-Thaksin victory puts Thai army on back foot

Sun Dec 23, 10:48 AM

BANGKOK (Reuters) - The party backing ousted Thai Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra easily won the most seats in Sunday's election, a stunning rejection of the coup which booted out the telecoms billionaire in 2006.

With 93 percent of the vote counted, the People Power Party (PPP) was heading for 228 seats in the 480-member parliament and said it would form a coalition government, although analysts do not see a smooth transition in a still deeply divided country.

Abrasive PPP leader Samak Sundaravej said Thaksin had phoned from exile to congratulate him on the result, a major problem for the generals whose campaign to consign Thaksin to political oblivion via the coup and corruption charges now lies in tatters.

"It is a victory for this country," Samak told a news conference, adding that he would "certainly be prime minister."

"This country lost its freedom on September 19 last year for no good reason," he said.

The big question is whether the army and the royalist establishment, whom the Thaksin camp says was the brains behind the bloodless putsch, will stand by and watch its arch-enemy make a comeback by proxy.

One senior PPP figure has suggested Thaksin be invited back on February 14 -- St. Valentine's Day.

Although some analysts said a strong PPP showing could trigger another coup, others believe the army-appointed government is more likely to try first to stymie the PPP by disqualifying candidates for vote fraud.

The bigger the PPP win, the harder that will be.

"It depends how many red cards they have to issue," said Kevin Hewison, a Thai expert at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. "If it's 40 or 50, it may be difficult, but if it's only 10 or 20, they might be able to do it."

The Election Commission said it had received more than 750 complaints, but was taking only 157 of them seriously. It was not clear how many of these could lead to disqualifications.

ARMY DISQUIET?

Samak said he did not foresee another coup since new army chief Anupong Paochinda was a "good guy" committed to keeping out of politics.

But the military would prefer a government led by the Democrats, the main opposition during Thaksin's five years in power, even though most analysts say such a coalition would be weak and unlikely to last beyond a year.

The Democrats, led by Oxford-educated Abhisit Vejjajiva -- the man foreign investors want to see as the next prime minister -- looked set to take 166 seats and conceded that PPP should be first to try to form a government.

Financial markets hope the return of an elected administration will signal the end of a period of disappointing economic growth, likely to fall from 5.1 percent in 2006 towards four percent this year, the lowest rate in six years.

PPP has said it would lift the capital controls imposed a year ago to rein in the rapidly strengthening baht.

At polling stations across Bangkok, voters said they were tired of more than two years of political confrontation between Thaksin and Thailand's old elite, who considered the provincial, ethnic Chinese businessman a nouveau riche upstart.

"It doesn't really matter which party gets in just as long as we have a government as soon as possible," said Anunt, 60.

The anti-Thaksin camp, which staged months of street protests in Bangkok before the coup, had vowed to renew its campaign if PPP got anywhere near power.

But it said on Sunday it respected the vote and would resume its campaign only if PPP tried to get corruption charges against Thaksin dropped.

Last year's coup was the 18th in 75 years of on-off democracy in Thailand and Sunday's vote underscored the deep political divisions between the capital and the rural masses who were the primary beneficiaries of Thaksin's populist largesse.

His Thai Rak Thai party has since been dissolved and he and 110 party members barred from politics for five years.

[Maxi101]

Seems that the pro-Thaksin camp has woken up.

To defend this man shows a great lack of intelligence.

Thaksin:

-war on drugs

-corruption as an art

-defamation trials against anyone with an opposite view

-nationalistic

-Shin deal, tax evation

-unaffordable populist schemes (30 baht health scheme)

-and most important: the average (average!!!!) household debt of the Thais has increased from 70,000 to 130,000 baht a capita,

The man creamed off the top of the money flow, threw in populist policies (bread and games Caesar!) and was cruising towards national bankrupcy.

The claim that the Thai economy was flourishing is bs; the Thais were and are clear under performers compared with its neighbors.

Stick your head in the sand if you wish!

There is no denfending only comparing and a try to understand how the poor rural folk is thinking.

If I would defend anybody then the surpressed Esarn folks.

But a majority here states out of their own interests ( oh oh oh oh I hope they love me)

Vote the FRT Party (Farrang ruck Thai) !

Edited December 24, 2007 by Maxi101