PM Abhisit Prepares For Election And Pledges To Play Fair

[webfact]

PM prepares for election and pledges to play fair

By The Nation

Prime Minister Abhisit Vejjajiva has pledged, in a bid to ensure a free and fair election, not to invoke the state mechanism to sway votes.

"The coalition will not take advantage of its governmental position," he said in his weekly address yesterday.

Abhisit is scheduled today to hold two meetings, one with the Election Commission and another with coalition parties, in order to make the final preparations before announcing the House dissolution to pave a way for the early election.

He said the House would be dissolved on Friday or Saturday, following which the government would work in a caretaker capacity pending the balloting within 45 to 60 days.

He said he had already instructed ministers and other office holders to seek their re-election bids without invoking the privileges entrusted to them.

All billboards with the pictures of ministers claiming credit for their work would be dismantled and the publicity campaign on ministerial performance taken off the air, he said.

The caretaker Cabinet will not initiate any policies nor get involved in budgetary allocation, he said.

He called on media outlets to allow equal access for all political parties contesting the poll.

In tomorrow's final Cabinet meeting, the government would not rush to pass any projects in a suspicious manner or review any unscheduled agendas, he said.

Pheu Thai Party spokesman Prompong Nopparit said he suspected the government would try to earmark Bt120 billion for several mega projects before leaving office.

Ministries, particularly Transport and Defence, will today seek a last-minute endorsement to earmark funds for spending projects previously approved by the Cabinet.

The Defence Ministry wants to buy 54 tanks from Ukraine, worth Bt7.2 billion, for deployment in the newly-formed 3rd Cavalry Division in Khon Kaen.

The Transport Ministry will try to allocate Bt32 billion for various projects.

The planned spending sprees include the procurement of 50 diesel locomotives, the purchase of 115 buses for Bangkok commuters and road construction projects in Chiang Mai and Bangkok.

More than one in two people believed the government would call the early election and about three in ten saw the poll as paving the way for a fresh start for the political turmoil to dissipate, Suan Dusit Poll said in its survey released yesterday.

Almost nine in ten people anticipated no tangible change in their livelihood regardless of the winning party.

In the lead up to the poll, the public were concerned that the caretaker government might not be in the position to adequately deal with two issues - the Thai-Cambodian border dispute and the rising cost of living.

Following the vote, the public were worried that the rival parties might not accept the outcome.

-- The Nation 2011-05-02

[Teddy3943]

Abhisit pledges to play fair... O.k. let independend international observers coming in, so they will prove that the Thai elections were fair.

[aquaman670]

Woooh easy there Teddy, let's not get carried away. Shouldn't we set up a comission first to study the findings of the rumors about the heresay???

[maewrocks]

"Prime Minister Abhisit Vejjajiva has pledged, in a bid to ensure a free and fair election, not to invoke the state mechanism to sway votes." Oh so not like the last election then. That's believable!!

The Democrat's military spending, as well as being simply wrong, has shown them up blatantly, to the point where the electorate realise that a vote for the Dems is a vote for ever increasing military budgets. If you google 'Thai military spending', you will come across a very telling graph, which shows that the coup signalled the end of steadily decreasing budgets and now the spending is simply out of hand. Submarines, new calvalry division (for Prem's b'day???).... the price of securing power, eh!

[DP25]

He called on media outlets to allow equal access for all political parties contesting the poll.

I'm sure this will extend to the red propaganda on the loudspeaker announcement systems that people in some areas are forced to listen to every day, and that they'll be allowing others to speak as well

Edited May 2, 2011 by DP25

[whybother]

"Prime Minister Abhisit Vejjajiva has pledged, in a bid to ensure a free and fair election, not to invoke the state mechanism to sway votes." Oh so not like the last election then. That's believable!!

The Democrat's military spending, as well as being simply wrong, has shown them up blatantly, to the point where the electorate realise that a vote for the Dems is a vote for ever increasing military budgets. If you google 'Thai military spending', you will come across a very telling graph, which shows that the coup signalled the end of steadily decreasing budgets and now the spending is simply out of hand. Submarines, new calvalry division (for Prem's b'day???).... the price of securing power, eh!

You would also come across graphs that showed that Thai military spending was average for the region.

[timekeeper]

anyone notice the proliferation of newbie posters on TV who have suddenly found a voice, a forum to shout from and a political opinion to spout?

sounds dodgy to me......................

[Boater]

Abhisit pledges to play fair... O.k. let independend international observers coming in, so they will prove that the Thai elections were fair.

dont forget to send the media outlets into every village to watch the hilux drive through with speakers blaring out ' 1,000 THB ' for your vote !!!!

[Insight]

anyone notice the proliferation of newbie posters on TV who have suddenly found a voice, a forum to shout from and a political opinion to spout?

sounds dodgy to me......................

What could possibly sound dodgy about "maewrocks" ?

[cardholder]

anyone notice the proliferation of newbie posters on TV who have suddenly found a voice, a forum to shout from and a political opinion to spout?

sounds dodgy to me......................

Brace yourself - there will surely be more to come.

[Buchholz]

anyone notice the proliferation of newbie posters on TV who have suddenly found a voice, a forum to shout from and a political opinion to spout?

sounds dodgy to me......................

What could possibly sound dodgy about "maewrocks" ?

maewrocks should not be confused with maewraps