The Pheu Thai Party has hailed the defunct Thai Rak Thai Party's overwhelming victory in the 2005 general election as a model to stop the regime from returning to power in the March 24 poll.
Pheu Thai spokeswoman Ladawan Wongsriwong said it was 14 years ago that former prime minister Thaksin Shinawatra led Thai Rak Thai to victory in the 2005 poll.
Thai Rak Thai won a majority of 377 out of 500 House seats, enabling it to form a single-party government for the first time in Thai politics, Ms Ladawan said.
The victory should be held as a model that can be used to stop the National Council for Peace and Order (NCPO) from returning to power after the March 24 poll, she said.
"It is widely known that this election will see a battle between advocates of democracy and supporters of dictatorship who want to help the NCPO prolong its grip on power," she added.
"But in the end, the people will decide which direction the country will head in -- they can choose between remaining mired in the kind of hardship we've seen over the last four years or live well with their pocket fulls of money," Ms Ladawan said.
She said Pheu Thai belongs to the "pro-democracy" camp and that several parties share a similar ideology.
Pheu Thai is said to be Thai Rak Thai's second reincarnation after the People Power Party.
Meanwhile, Sophon Phetsawang, former deputy leader of the Puea Chat Party, criticised several potential Puea Chat Party candidates yesterday who changed their names to Thaksin or Yingluck, presumably to try and cash in on the popularity of the two fugitive former prime ministers -- Thaksin and Yingluck Shinawatra.
Mr Sophon said people would vote for candidates based on party policies, not names. He labelled the candidates trying to cash in on the two names as "weird".
He said he and his son resigned from Puea Chat due to broken promises.
