The Thai Prime Minister, Thaksin Shinawatra, on Sunday claimed a landslide election victory after early results and exit polls suggested his party might sweep up to 80% of the 500 seats in Parliament.
The overwhelming majority for the Thai Rak Thai (Thais Love Thais) party is the first time a prime minister has been returned to office via the ballot box in the country’s coup-prone history. If, as expected, the final results mirror the predictions, the next four years may be the country’s first experience of one-party government.
Opposition politicians and government critics fear the huge mandate could precipitate increased authoritarianism in a country where rights and freedoms were eroded during Thaksin’s first term in office. The telecoms tycoon-turned-politician, who is among Thailand’s richest men, said the public had rewarded him for keeping his promises.
”Thai Rak Thai won because we have worked so hard and were dedicated for the past four years, and achieved many of our goals, particularly in fighting poverty, which has won the heart of the public,” he said on Sunday night. ”I’m glad, but on the other hand I’m still worried. I’m glad because the people have overwhelmingly supported my party, but I’m concerned because hard work is still ahead.”
He spoke after the leader of the opposition Democrat party, Banyat Bantadtan, conceded defeat. ”I was shocked when I saw the exit polls, that Thai Rak Thai managed to win 399 [seats] and the Democrats only 80, but we have to accept what the public gave us.”
Analysts believe Thaksin was significantly bolstered by his handling of the Boxing Day tsunami, in which at least 5 400 people died in Thailand. Within hours he was on the scene directing relief efforts and consoling survivors.
In Ban Namkhem, a southwestern fishing village levelled by the tsunami, voters on Sunday hitched rides on army trucks or squeezed into tiny wooden fishing boats to cast their ballot amid the rubble of what was once their homes.
”There were 3 000 people registered here, but we don’t know how many will come today because we’ve no idea how many are dead or missing,” a 38-year-old fisherman, Praiyun Jongkraijak, who lost his parents, home and boat in the disaster, told Reuters.
The tsunami and its aftermath also diverted voters’ attention away from other issues causing the premier problems. The most prominent among these was the unrest in the three southern Muslim-dominated provinces of the otherwise Buddhist country.
”In the final few months of last year Thaksin was struggling to contain the fallout of hundreds of deaths and no end in sight to the conflict,” said a western diplomat.
”Then, at a stroke, the south was forgotten and he once again became the people’s champion.”
Other failures, including his never-kept promise to wipe out the widespread methamphetamine addiction, his attempted cover-up of last year’s deadly bird flu outbreak, and his almost comical attempt to buy a stake in Liverpool football club, were overlooked.
Populist policies such as cheap healthcare for the poor were the hallmark of Thaksin’s first four years in office and he is expected to continue with similar themes while also brooking little dissent or criticism. ”We have strategies, we have plans and we will push them forward,” he said after voting when asked about his policy platform that promised an end to poverty, ambitious infrastructure projects and the privatisation of state companies.
Pasuk Phongpaichit, a political economist at Bangkok’s Chulalongkorn University, believes democracy activists could well have their hands full preventing Thaksin from turning Thailand into a one-party state.
”Probably we will effectively have a one-party state,” she told Reuters. ”But I would like to think that active and strong democratic movements on the part of the civil society will be able to prevent Thaksin from abusing the power of the one-party state. They have to work very hard, though.” – Guardian Unlimited Â