Word: isaan
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...rate, the Prime Minister has until 2011 to hold polls and doing so right now - in the wake of a global financial crisis and before his own populist reforms have had time to take full effect - would likely mean career suicide. Meantime, his reluctance to travel widely in Isaan - the impoverished northeastern farm belt where Thaksin's support is strongest - because of safety concerns makes Abhisit look even further removed from the very commoners he vowed to protect when taking office. On March 21, red-shirt protestors used gallons of their own blood to inscribe 70 meters of canvas...
...running street protests in Bangkok calling for Thaksin's resignation for alleged corruption and abuse of power. Junta-appointed investigators then froze his assets and filed a raft of corruption charges against him and his family - charges that he denies. But Thaksin's popularity in rural areas such as Isaan remains undented, and with his loyalists in the PPP tipped to win more seats than any other party, his political clout is still a force to be reckoned with, even from self-imposed exile in England. "This election is a proxy war between Thaksin and the coupmakers," says Chris Baker...
...having almost every questionable, old politician from the bad old days of corrupt governments," commented the Bangkok Post in an editorial. Corruption appears rife. "We've had a lot of reports of vote-buying," says Montri Kiatkhamjorn, a senior officer for the Election Commission, the poll watchdog, in Isaan. "It seems like it's become the culture of this election already." Montri reckons "maybe 50%" of candidates are buying votes in the region, often using hard-to-track methods. A candidate might pay for a funeral or another important local ceremony, clear a gambler's debt to an underground bookie...
...best weapon is evidently Thaksin's name. Anyone attending the party's rallies could be forgiven for thinking that the deposed PM is running for office. A recent Samak rally in Yasothon province in Isaan attracts thousands of people, many of them trucked in from surrounding villages. A stall sells books and pamphlets attacking the former PM's political and military foes, plus a VCD featuring an emotional Thaksin called One Year Missing. "I cried when I watched it," says the old woman selling them. The two candidates whom Samak has come to support are all but forgotten. Instead...
...Southern Thailand is a stronghold for the Democrats, but the northeast region of Isaan is a graveyard. There, Thaksin is a tough act to follow. In None Somboon village, his face still beams from sun-bleached posters left over from a previous election. "Most Prime Ministers never leave their air-conditioned offices," says rice farmer Boon Mithaowan, 49. "Thaksin promised to do things, then he did them." Thanks to him, says Boon, the local irrigation canal was dredged and a new road built through the village...