Poll Predicts Thai Rak Thai Wins Next Election

[george]

Poll predicts Thai Rak Thai would stay as government next term

BANGKOK: -- An opinion poll released here Sunday said Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra's Thai RakThai Party has remained the most popular choice for the majority of voters in its recent survey.

The Assumption University's pollsters conducted a survey among 26,133 eligible voters in 400 polling districts across the country during the past three and a half weeks to test the popularity of political parties before the ruling party began its so-called ''kickoff'' election campaign early today.

The opinion poll, which ended yesterday found that at least 63 percent of surveyed voters said they would exercise their voting right in the general election next year. About 22.1 percent said they would not vote as they were sick and tired of Thai politics or rather worked while another 14.6 percent said they were undecided.

Among these keen voters, 48.9 percent said they would vote for candidates for the Thai Rak Thai while 34.9 percent would go for politicians from the opposition Democrat Party. The rest voters were divided almost averagely between other parties, namely Mahachon, Chart Thai, and First Thai Nation Party.

Asked if they had followed important political news in the past month, only a quarter of surveyed voters said they had, 65.8 said they often had, and the rest 9.2 percent said they hadn't followed the news at all.

Asked about vote-buying in the last general election, 41.8 percent of voters said there was the malpractice in their areas while 58.2 said they saw none.

The poll reported that the Thai RakThai Party was best known among 93 percent of the surveyed voters while 84.4 of them said they knew the Democrat. About 66.8 percent went to the Chart Pattana Party and 31.7 percent for the Mahachon Party, and 23.2 percent for the newly established First Thai Nation Party, respectively.

Asked if they were pleased with performances of their elected representatives, 56.3 percent said they have never seen their elected MPs showing their faces after the last election while 43.7 said they were visited by the politicians they chose and still heard news about them.

From the findings, the ABAC pollsters made a prediction that in the next general election, Mr. Thaksin's Thai Rak Thai Party was likely to remain as the ruling party while the Democrat as the main opposition. The poll said the Democrat seemed to have gained more respect from voters for its track record in scrutinize the government.

The poll also predicted that although the Thai Rak Thai has merged with a number of other prominent political parties, it may win only 59 seats which would still be the majority, followed by the Democrat at 34 seats and 7 seats for the Chart Thai.

--TNA 2004-10-17

[sriracha john]

Vote for us or else you’ll suffer, poor told

Published on October 18, 2004

The Thai Rak Thai party yesterday kicked off its election campaign with the strongest and most belligerent hard-sell yet from its leader, Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra, towards the underprivileged – vote for us, or else you will suffer.

Thaksin was in emotional mode, constantly switching from belligerent to relaxed, and then back again. “I ask for your forgiveness if I’ve offended you, whether by my actions, speech or thoughts,” he said.

The stadium roared with laughter when he told the audience that he worked so hard for the country that he had no time for his family and personal life, especially sex.

“My children were chastised in the Parliament…I have no private time. Even sex is gone,” he said and paused before adding, “Not that much. I’ve still got the power.”

His degree of fanaticism was defined by his defiant challenge in bringing up his much-criticised war on drugs.

“I’ll just say this. Call me names if you want. There’re only two places for drug dealers: a prison or a temple [for a funeral],” he said.