Mon, Apr 24, 2006 page5

• Thai voters wear black in protest against Thaksin

  DISGRUNTLED SOUTH Thousands wore black to express their hostility to the prime minister in a vote meant to fill seats left empty in a previous poll

  • AP
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  Protesting against the regime of outgoing Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra, voters in southern Thailand wore black and tore up their ballots yesterday, in another round of parliamentary elections to avert a looming constitutional breakdown.

  Voting is taking place in 40 constituencies, mostly in Thailand's insurgency-plagued southern provinces, in an attempt to fill seats left vacant in earlier polls for the lower house of parliament because of minimum turnout rules.

  But election officials said candidates in at least 10 constituencies were again unlikely to win seats, leading to uncharted constitutional territory.

  The law stipulates that parliament should convene within 30 days of an election to form a new government, but also that it cannot convene if all 500 seats are not filled.

  Thousands of voters wore black, and at least nine voters tore up their ballots.

  Hundreds of black-clad protesters stormed a police station and forced the release of one activist who had been arrested for destroying his ballot.

  "The voters in the south are fighting to topple the Thaksin regime. If the Thai Rak Thai party runs alone without opponents they will never ever win, even if they run 100 times in elections," said Dr Kriangsak Liwcharoenpatana, the anti-Thaksin activist who was arrested by police after tearing up his ballot at a polling station in the southern city of Songkhla.

  Hundreds of voters shouted "Dr Fight, Dr Fight" and "Thaksin get out," as Kriangsak tore up the ballot, calling it an act of civil disobedience. If charged and convicted for destroying his ballot, Kriangsak could face a one-year jail term and a fine.

  All three main opposition parties boycotted the April 2 elections, accusing Thaksin's ruling Thai Rak Thai party of unfairly controlling the political process. That resulted in 40 of 500 seats remaining vacant, since Thai law requires that unopposed candidates receive the support of at least 20 percent of eligible voters to win a seat.

  Opponents of Thaksin and the ruling party have called on voters to chose the "no vote," or abstention, option on their ballot in the election or destroy their ballots.

  In the province of Nakhon Si Thammarat at least nine polling stations could not open after local election officials left their posts in protest. They were replaced by volunteers and voting began several hours later.

  "Reports from the region show that there are several problems in southern Thailand. After three hours the turnout is still very low. This problem makes the Election Commission admit that in at least 10 constituencies where Thai Rak Thai is running without opponents, the candidates may not make 20 percent," said Ekachai Warrunprapa, an Election Commission member, in Bangkok.

  "It is impossible for the government candidates to win the election. It is impossible for government to convene the parliament," said Chalee Nopawong na Ayuthaya, a protest leader at the Songkhla No. 2 constituency where a Thai Rak Thai candidate ran unopposed.

  Many voters at the polling booth said they had cast a no vote.

  "Thousands of Muslim people have been killed since Thaksin came to power and this is the only time that I can demonstrate my hatred of him," said Walai Yonprasert, a 55-year-old Muslim woman who, along with four other voters, tore up her ballot.

  Ahead of the vote, four chiefs of provincial election commissions in the south and about 700 volunteers quit in a protest against the Election Commission, which they say favors the Thaksin camp.
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