AFTER A YEAR of adjustments, Thailand's military government has held parliamentary elections. Because the junta has maintained military control over the country following last year's coup, the elections were not entirely free. Fortunately, there were only a few violent incidents and for the most part the elections proceeded smoothly.
The People's Power Party (PPP), which supports former prime minister Thaksin Shinawatra, won almost half of the seats -- 233 out of 480. This means the party will form a coalition government. Thaksin is still powerful and he will still be able to influence Thai politics.
One of the more noteworthy things about the elections was that the voting system changed from two votes per voter in small constituencies to two votes per voter in medium-sized constituencies.
The country is divided into 157 such constituencies, each of which elects up to three members of parliament. Eighty MPs are also elected based on proportional party representation in eight national constituencies.
The main reason behind this change to the system was that the previous small voting districts led to Thaksin's old party, Thai Rak Thai, winning two-thirds of parliamentary seats in the last election.
This went against a trend that had developed in Thailand over the previous 50 years in which no single party had obtained an absolute parliamentary majority.
The new system was specially designed by the junta and had also been given tacit approval by Thailand's king: He and top military leaders did not want a single party to win an absolute majority and thus gain control of parliament.
If that were to happen, power could fall into the hands of wealthy ethnic Chinese and it could also threaten the authority of the king and the interests of ethnic Thais. In the past 50 years, Thailand has maintained this traditional political framework, balancing the powers of the king, the army and the parliament.
When Thailand amended its Constitution in 1997, the elite started to gradually change the voting system because it wanted to move toward one with two votes and small districts, as was fashionable at the time. They had not expected that this would lead to the large Thai Rak Thai party gaining control of parliament.
The traditional political system lost its equilibrium and the medium-sized and small parties were unable to benefit from the new political arrangement. They couldn't share in political power as they had done in the past and started to boycott Thaksin's government.
The king and the military were worried about this development, and the military took advantage of the situation to stage a coup, bringing an end to single-party control of parliament.
The new electoral system is meant to correct the shortcomings of the small district system used in the last elections, but the results make it clear that this has not been completely effective.
The military government made an effort to diminish Thaksin's power by disbanding Thai Rak Thai and banning 111 party members from participating in politics for five years. But in the end, the PPP still won almost half of all parliamentary seats.
The party has promised to abolish the ban on Thai Rak Thai, while the junta is actively investigating accusations of corruption and tax evasion against Thaksin's family to eradicate his power. Thailand's political troubles might not have ended yet.
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