Commission on a mission

Commission on a mission

The EC's secretary-general Jarungvith Phumma, holds a fake ballot and a genuine secrecy shield. (Photo by Tawatchai Kemgumnerd)
The EC's secretary-general Jarungvith Phumma, holds a fake ballot and a genuine secrecy shield. (Photo by Tawatchai Kemgumnerd)

"The Election Commission shall announce the result of the election", and there really hasn't been any more vast difference between the EC and the members of the public. It's not even supposed to be a worry. But everyone's worrying about the scraping of all the foreign votes and the vital gathering of all today's advance votes and the really major assembling next week of every one-person-one-vote.

There has not been such an election with such a surly grip. The EC knows how to do this. Right?

You could almost discard the Thai Raksa Chart shenaniganery, except for the fact of just taking one week without any actual broken laws. You might cast aside the Dec 19 banquet, but for completely fuddling the difference for 13 weeks between foreign funding and donations by state enterprises.

The EC spent 1.71 million baht per EC member on average, for one-week travel to oversee overseas voting. But then there's a burlesque of cardboard-box privacy shields. There's a Future Forward craziness about Facebook posts and a four-minute police jobsworth over a fake news post. An actual, real, true complaint charges Bhumjaithai with anti-drug violations on the basis of its marijuana policy.

The Watchman, who is looking after election security for all of us, equally, noted that once the Palang Pracharath Party gets a few people and 250 senators into parliament, "It won't be difficult to form the next government".

In the words of the song of self-praise sung by the general prime minister at the completely non-political rally at Korat, "We achieved so much in five years. If we get another five years, we can achieve even more." If it were a political rally, he probably would have urged the ladies who turned out to vote for him that, "It's up to you to choose the best".

The Economist disagrees, in a Saturday humbug headlined, "Thailand's bogus election". It stamps the vote as a new phase in military misrule.

Also disagreeing on Friday in a pithy Bangkok Post commentary is Chulalongkorn brainiac Thitinan Pongsudhirak. He calls the likely outcome an army-backed junta under democratic disguise.

It's weird that Abhisit Vejjajiva holds the tipping point a week before the election. The man who has only ever been prime minister thanks to direct military intervention (by the current Minister of Interior) has a narrow possibility to regain that position. There is no way the Democrats will ever marshal 375 votes in the bicameral parliament. But his tiny chance of sitting again in the prime minister's chair rests entirely upon support from the non-regime political parties.

He has written a poem. In it, he slags off the third-generation Pheu Thai as a party with "an unsavoury past". Then he condescends to the green shirts as "a military regime clinging on to power". Sure. Just one problem, as that leaves him with no one to glam onto on March 25.

But what if his poem has a last verse? What if it describes a Democrat Party torn between two lovers? To cut to the chase. Mr Abhisit becomes prime minister with the votes of Pheu Thai, or the votes of the military. Stranger things.

This peeves the third Deputy Prime Minister Somkid Jatusripitak, who needs Mr Abhisit. His road back to the top will give 59 million Thai voters the pro-military government they deserve.

And it peeves the Pheu Thai voters. They are climbing a political Mount Everest. The tall man went to bat for Mr Abhisit. Korn Chatikavanij demands pitting Mr Abhisit against the voters. It's the secret senators that are shaking investor confidence.

So it was interesting to hear what voters consider, going into the voting station. First, the actual candidate, then the party and after that, who is the party leader -- or, in other words, the possible prime minister. Fourth is the policy of the party; the overall description is enough for most voters, without getting technical.

Alan Dawson

Online Reporter / Sub-Editor

A Canadian by birth. Former Saigon's UPI bureau chief. Drafted into the American Armed Forces. He has survived eleven wars and innumerable coups. A walking encyclopedia of knowledge.

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