Thai elections may be delayed until 2016: report

[WhizBang]

Somehow I can't see this government ever voluntarily re-instituting democracy. It's conceivable that somewhere down the road they devise some mechanism to pass day on to day running to faces in civilian suits. But any concession of real power is not, I fear, on the agenda.

Wait for the groundswell to take hold. It has started already. The PM is sitting on a powder keg and has already lit the fuse, but does not seem to realize it.

[WhizBang]

" Thai elections may be delayed until 2016 "

Note the "may " this is one guys idea. Not concrete information, he may be correct in his assumptions BUT it is not an official announcement!

Well, it may not be officially official, but I would be very surprised if the Thai Minister of Finance would say such things in a BBC interview without 'official' approval.

Right, This is Thailand, so maybe we will see a lot of backpedaling in the next few days.

[Asiantravel]

Elections Hong Kong style or Mafia style are useless.

The important is the respect of: All Thais are born free and equal in dignity and rights.

Or this one: Everyone has the right to freedom of opinion and expression.

Is it the case in the Junta project or not?

They are delaying because they still can't figure out a way of denying those pesky rural folk in the north and north-east the right to vote

[whybother]

I wonder if everyone was saying "They'll never have elections again" in 2006.

[WhizBang]

If I was to be a betting man, which is illegal here, I'd sayThere will be no elections until after a certain date ?

I must confess to having thoughts along those same lines. Definately a lot of movement going on in the background.

[Thailand]

Absolute shocker, never expected this.

Right out of the blue with that announcement.

[BritTim]

Not surprised at all. My guess it will be 2017/2018

I think 2017-18 is possible if the military government becomes sufficiently unpopular by then. A return to democracy will not occur just as a result of international pressure. As long as the government retains some degree of acceptance at home, elections will remain 12-18 months away. (Note that elections were promised in about 12 months last May, but are now projected to be around 18 months from now.)

[BritTim]

In my humble opinion this may be a good thing. Firstly our policies on reform are still very far from completion, and then we should give the completed reform’s a trial run of about 2 years, making amendment’s wherever necessary. Secondly, we have to re-educate our poorer population (which may be over 70% at the moment) by re-educating them I mean in the difference from right and wrong, which is lacking at the moment. This should take a further 2 years, only then should we consider having elections. Once this happens the elected party should also have a trial run under the watchful eye of the military for a further 2 years, that should have the power to dissolve the party immediately should they not strictly conform to the rule of law.

IMHO, re-educating the elite in the difference between right and wrong is a more important priority.

Edited November 27, 2014 by metisdead
16) You will not make changes to quoted material from other members posts, except for purposes of shortening the quoted post. This cannot be done in such a manner that it alters the context of the original post.

[tomross46]

Somehow I can't see this government ever voluntarily re-instituting democracy. It's conceivable that somewhere down the road they devise some mechanism to pass day on to day running to faces in civilian suits. But any concession of real power is not, I fear, on the agenda.

Every one is talking about Democracy, just because there is an election does not guarantee a Democracy. Even in the USA where we have all the verbiage about free and fair elections, there is not a democracy, and the election are as corrupt or even more so than Thailand. USA is not a Democracy it is a Republic.

[heybruce]

I wonder if everyone was saying "They'll never have elections again" in 2006.

Not that I recall. Do you really need to have the differences between the 2006 and 2014 coups explained to you?

[whybother]

I wonder if everyone was saying "They'll never have elections again" in 2006.

Not that I recall. Do you really need to have the differences between the 2006 and 2014 coups explained to you?

Yep. Please explain the differences.

[Cuchulainn]

Good. Don't let the clowns take over the circus.

[webfact]

GENERAL POLL
Thai election pushed back to 2016 - deputy PM
Reuters

BANGKOK: -- A Thai general election planned for next year will be delayed until 2016, Deputy Prime Minister Prawit Wongsuwan said Thursday.

Prime Minister Prayuth Chan-ocha, who led a military coup inMay, had previously hinted at a delay to polls promised for late 2015.

Prawit said elections will take place in 2016, citing groups opposed to the junta, or National Council for Peace and Order as one reason for the delay.

"We will be able to organise elections around the start of 2016 once the constitution is drafted," Prawit told reporters.

"Right now there are elements opposed to the National Council for Peace and Order.

Source: http://www.nationmultimedia.com/politics/Thai-election-pushed-back-to-2016--deputy-PM-30248659.html


-- The Nation 2014-11-27

[webfact]

Election may be six months behind schedule



BANGKOK: -- General election in Thailand may be delayed until 2016 or about six months behind its 2015 schedule.

This was revealed by Finance Minister Sommai Phasee during his exclusive interview with BBC contributing editor Linda Yueh this week.

The interview is scheduled to be broadcast on BBC for her Talking Business programme at the weekend.

Sommai hinted of possible delay of Thailand’s general election for a year from 2015 as earlier scheduled to 2016.

The Thai finance minister told Linda Yueh that the military junta chief has earlier announced to have the general election in 2015.

However Sommai said he thought it might take a year and a half before the election could be held.

BBC said Mr Sommai has discussed general election with the junta chief Gen Prayut Chan-o-cha.

The interview will be on air on BBC for her Talking Business programme end of this week.

Lindah Yueh is currently Chief Business Correspondent and a Contributing Editor for BBC News as well as presenter of Talking Business with Linda Yueh.

Source: http://englishnews.thaipbs.or.th/election-may-six-months-behind-schedule


-- Thai PBS 2014-11-27

[metisdead]

Troll posts and replies have been removed. Other off topic nonsense posts and replies were removed a swell.

[partington]

The big problem with democracy is that it gives too much power to poor people, so the wrong people get elected. Only the rich and powerful elite are actually qualified to run things, and so, if by error they do not get elected, they need to halt democracy, and then decide with their superior wisdom if and when there is going to be another election.

The fact that these misguided poor people don't want the elite to run things must be solved by educating them until they DO want the elite to be in charge, and so they MUST hold off elections until that happens.

The only other way of ensuring the right result is to somehow limit the votes. Clearly it's totally wrong that a poor farmer's vote has as much weight in the elections as that of a very rich CEO, say , who has high intelligence and knows a lot of judges and politicians. That gives the poor farmer an unfairly equal say, even though he is not rich or powerful, and doesn't know the right people.

A good way to get round this glaring imbalance would be to restore the full weight of the rich CEO's vote by making each farmer's vote worth, say, one quarter of the vote of a rich person. Then society would get back to the way we all know it should be: with the people who always run things guaranteed to go on running things in perpetuity, with no unhelpful confusion.

This would be very good for Thailand, as rich people always help poor people, even at the cost of their own financial disadvantage, and so giving rich people a vote worth four times more than poor people would HELP poor people. It's so obvious!

In any case I now believe the Army are waiting for an event that will itself precipitate so much political and social chaos that they will be forced to keep control for at least five years (or more) to ensure public order...

[BirdsandBooze]

Not surprised at all. My guess it will be 2017/2018

--------------------------

Good.

maybe by then the Thai voters will realize that elections are not a popularity test, where they vote for their "favorites" as though they were movie stars.

But instead the elections should be a vote where they are hiring "servants" who they hire to take care of their nation-house as carefully as they hire workers...... who, if they do not do the job they are hired for, should be fired for not doing the job they were hired for.

Politicians are not "movie stars" who you vote for because you "like" them, they are hired servants.

But, I doubt that idea will ever get through to the Thai electorate.

Until it does, maybe after 10 years or so, Thailand does not really need "popularity contest elections".

You vote for the policies that will best suit your needs and that fit into your ideology.

At the same time if you know full well your party who promises the world to obtain your vote but will never secure enough votes due to ideology and demographics you tend to think second best.

How do you think all the Liberals in the UK felt for hundred of years, some great policies but were never strong enough to compete with the Tories or with new Labour? it took a coalition to give them any sort of day in implementing some of their policies.

The problem with Thaialnd is there's too many parties and demographically the PTP and it's precious incarnations seemed to hold the upper hands.

What the Dems have to do is to convince the die hard reds to switch their ideology and secure their vote.... Good luck with that Kuhn Abhisit !!

The dems also have to convince all the other parties to side with them to defeat anything the reds can muster in any future elections.

Having the Junta in power for the next few years and maintaining Martial Law is the inhibitor that prevents the dems and any other political party from canvassing to start actually swaying votes.

If I was to be a betting man, which is illegal here, I'd sayThere will be no elections until after a certain date ?

I bet British Liberals would kill to have a leader again in the mould of former Liberal Prime Ministers like Lord Palmerston, William Gladstone and David Lloyd George. Politicians of their character would be useful here too; all strong men who knew how to handle the military.

[Tatsujin]

Cleaning beaches, removing streetvendors and fixing the taxi-ranks clearly takes time!!

removing police bosses as well

But so far, mostly from only one side of the political divide ... when I start to see the other side getting arrested for all of their crimes, then I'll perhaps start to believe that things are changing for the better here ... until then it's simply same, same not different ...

[firestar]

Make some noise with an anti-corruption case then slide this HUGE news just behind it hoping no one will notice

The Junta asks people to be Thai but is getting fluent at western style PR and political spin

Edited November 27, 2014 by firestar

[firestar]

We can't criticize moderation but there is no rule against discussing editorial lines.

And I just wonder if a new thread with the title below will make it to my breaking news newsletter or if TV will keep it nicely buried.

Thai election pushed back to 2016 - deputy PM

Edited November 27, 2014 by firestar

[garrya]

The big problem with democracy is that it gives too much power to poor people, so the wrong people get elected. Only the rich and powerful elite are actually qualified to run things, and so, if by error they do not get elected, they need to halt democracy, and then decide with their superior wisdom if and when there is going to be another election.

The fact that these misguided poor people don't want the elite to run things must be solved by educating them until they DO want the elite to be in charge, and so they MUST hold off elections until that happens.

The only other way of ensuring the right result is to somehow limit the votes. Clearly it's totally wrong that a poor farmer's vote has as much weight in the elections as that of a very rich CEO, say , who has high intelligence and knows a lot of judges and politicians. That gives the poor farmer an unfairly equal say, even though he is not rich or powerful, and doesn't know the right people.

A good way to get round this glaring imbalance would be to restore the full weight of the rich CEO's vote by making each farmer's vote worth, say, one quarter of the vote of a rich person. Then society would get back to the way we all know it should be: with the people who always run things guaranteed to go on running things in perpetuity, with no unhelpful confusion.

This would be very good for Thailand, as rich people always help poor people, even at the cost of their own financial disadvantage, and so giving rich people a vote worth four times more than poor people would HELP poor people. It's so obvious!

In any case I now believe the Army are waiting for an event that will itself precipitate so much political and social chaos that they will be forced to keep control for at least five years (or more) to ensure public order...

This is the most senseless idea I have ever read here. You want to say that the Poor has less rights than the Rich?????

I am coming from a really poor background so that I wouldn't be able to vote in your "ideal society".

Do you think that all the rich people vote for the one the country needs the most???

I wonder if you stood in front of a crowd of village people and shared your thoughts what would happen?

[partington]

The big problem with democracy is that it gives too much power to poor people, so the wrong people get elected. Only the rich and powerful elite are actually qualified to run things, and so, if by error they do not get elected, they need to halt democracy, and then decide with their superior wisdom if and when there is going to be another election.

The fact that these misguided poor people don't want the elite to run things must be solved by educating them until they DO want the elite to be in charge, and so they MUST hold off elections until that happens.

The only other way of ensuring the right result is to somehow limit the votes. Clearly it's totally wrong that a poor farmer's vote has as much weight in the elections as that of a very rich CEO, say , who has high intelligence and knows a lot of judges and politicians. That gives the poor farmer an unfairly equal say, even though he is not rich or powerful, and doesn't know the right people.

A good way to get round this glaring imbalance would be to restore the full weight of the rich CEO's vote by making each farmer's vote worth, say, one quarter of the vote of a rich person. Then society would get back to the way we all know it should be: with the people who always run things guaranteed to go on running things in perpetuity, with no unhelpful confusion.

This would be very good for Thailand, as rich people always help poor people, even at the cost of their own financial disadvantage, and so giving rich people a vote worth four times more than poor people would HELP poor people. It's so obvious!

In any case I now believe the Army are waiting for an event that will itself precipitate so much political and social chaos that they will be forced to keep control for at least five years (or more) to ensure public order...

This is the most senseless idea I have ever read here. You want to say that the Poor has less rights than the Rich?????

I am coming from a really poor background so that I wouldn't be able to vote in your "ideal society".

Do you think that all the rich people vote for the one the country needs the most???

I wonder if you stood in front of a crowd of village people and shared your thoughts what would happen?

Hopefully they would recognise it as irony: it is the opposite of what I believe. It is the kind of justification those who feel they are born to rule make, exaggerated only slightly beyond absurdity to try to point out that their point of view is self-serving and unjustified.

Edited November 27, 2014 by partington

[Leung Falang]

Not surprised at all. My guess it will be 2017/2018

never if "happiness" is included

[heybruce]

I wonder if everyone was saying "They'll never have elections again" in 2006.

Not that I recall. Do you really need to have the differences between the 2006 and 2014 coups explained to you?

Yep. Please explain the differences.

Martial law with no end in sight, much more censorship and restrictions on free speech and assembly, detentions without charge or any rights, no sense of urgency in writing the new constitution or scheduling elections, etc. Check Wikipedia if you need details.

Didn't you accuse me of not reading much on another thread?

[whybother]

I wonder if everyone was saying "They'll never have elections again" in 2006.

Not that I recall. Do you really need to have the differences between the 2006 and 2014 coups explained to you?

Yep. Please explain the differences.

Martial law with no end in sight, much more censorship and restrictions on free speech and assembly, detentions without charge or any rights, no sense of urgency in writing the new constitution or scheduling elections, etc. Check Wikipedia if you need details.

Didn't you accuse me of not reading much on another thread?

Ok, that's 2006. How is 2014 different?

[junk1e]

The longer the better in my opinion. I find it amazing that many people on this forum who were calling for the removal of Thaksin and Yingluk are now bemoaning the fact that elections are being delayed, which at this time would definitely see Thaksin's cronies buy their way back in. A democratic election? Come on. Current administration is doing more to clean up the country than any in living memory. Will take many years to do properly and foreign governments should look to put their own houses in order before they start attacking Thailand.

[yellow1red1]

Democracy is over-rated when used in Asian lands like Thailand, partly because you have the 'm' word to take care of things if it all goes tits up. The military just hold things together until the 'democracy' part gets its act together and stops being such a clusterfck.

Democrazy is over-rated. *full stop*... It's only kleptocracy with a dress on.

>> Emma Goldman 1900. "If Voting made any difference, They would make it illegal."

>>> The Pacific Ocean is a garbage dump and 3 million children will starve to death in 2015. Still, low brains talk about human 'civilization'. 555

The political systems of history rely on, pure, dumb luck to be successful, not intelligent architecture. Lately, in the West, it's been, mostly, bad luck!

[lildragon]

The big problem with democracy is that it gives too much power to poor people, so the wrong people get elected. Only the rich and powerful elite are actually qualified to run things, and so, if by error they do not get elected, they need to halt democracy, and then decide with their superior wisdom if and when there is going to be another election.

The fact that these misguided poor people don't want the elite to run things must be solved by educating them until they DO want the elite to be in charge, and so they MUST hold off elections until that happens.

The only other way of ensuring the right result is to somehow limit the votes. Clearly it's totally wrong that a poor farmer's vote has as much weight in the elections as that of a very rich CEO, say , who has high intelligence and knows a lot of judges and politicians. That gives the poor farmer an unfairly equal say, even though he is not rich or powerful, and doesn't know the right people.

A good way to get round this glaring imbalance would be to restore the full weight of the rich CEO's vote by making each farmer's vote worth, say, one quarter of the vote of a rich person. Then society would get back to the way we all know it should be: with the people who always run things guaranteed to go on running things in perpetuity, with no unhelpful confusion.

This would be very good for Thailand, as rich people always help poor people, even at the cost of their own financial disadvantage, and so giving rich people a vote worth four times more than poor people would HELP poor people. It's so obvious!

In any case I now believe the Army are waiting for an event that will itself precipitate so much political and social chaos that they will be forced to keep control for at least five years (or more) to ensure public order...

This is the most senseless idea I have ever read here. You want to say that the Poor has less rights than the Rich?????

I am coming from a really poor background so that I wouldn't be able to vote in your "ideal society".

Do you think that all the rich people vote for the one the country needs the most???

I wonder if you stood in front of a crowd of village people and shared your thoughts what would happen?

Partington is a troll surely? That is without a doubt the most ignorant post I have seen on this place. And this is really saying something!

[yellow1red1]

The big problem with democracy is that it gives too much power to poor people, so the wrong people get elected. Only the rich and powerful elite are actually qualified to run things, and so, if by error they do not get elected, they need to halt democracy, and then decide with their superior wisdom if and when there is going to be another election.

The fact that these misguided poor people don't want the elite to run things must be solved by educating them until they DO want the elite to be in charge, and so they MUST hold off elections until that happens.

The only other way of ensuring the right result is to somehow limit the votes. Clearly it's totally wrong that a poor farmer's vote has as much weight in the elections as that of a very rich CEO, say , who has high intelligence and knows a lot of judges and politicians. That gives the poor farmer an unfairly equal say, even though he is not rich or powerful, and doesn't know the right people.

A good way to get round this glaring imbalance would be to restore the full weight of the rich CEO's vote by making each farmer's vote worth, say, one quarter of the vote of a rich person. Then society would get back to the way we all know it should be: with the people who always run things guaranteed to go on running things in perpetuity, with no unhelpful confusion.

This would be very good for Thailand, as rich people always help poor people, even at the cost of their own financial disadvantage, and so giving rich people a vote worth four times more than poor people would HELP poor people. It's so obvious!

In any case I now believe the Army are waiting for an event that will itself precipitate so much political and social chaos that they will be forced to keep control for at least five years (or more) to ensure public order...

great rhubarb! bet a nickle yer a Canuck, eh. [or write for Mad Magzine]

and, oh, please do tell... what is this Event we can expect?

[Fat Haggis]

Jesus yellow1red1 if you don't know and have to ask then you're not as keyed in as you think mate