Word: thais
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...halted). With no single party likely to secure a majority (about 4,000 candidates from dozens of parties are vying for the 480 parliamentary places), Thailand's first postcoup government might look much like those of the pre-Thaksin past: a shaky coalition with another sharp-toothed monster, the Thai military, breathing down its neck...
...election, and Isaan a key battleground, dinosaurs again roam the region - political ones this time. Lumbering onto a campaign stage in this sleepy town is veteran politician Samak Sundaravej, 72, the right-wing firebrand who leads the People Power Party (PPP). The PPP is an ill-disguised facsimile of Thai Rak Thai (TRT), the party outlawed after the Thai military overthrew its leader, the multi-billionaire Thaksin Shinawatra, in September 2006. The TRT's Bangkok headquarters is now occupied by the PPP, and the two parties' logos are almost identical. So are their policies, such as cheap health care...
...similar to those of its archrival, the Democrat Party. "You'll notice that all the parties are populist these days," says Thitinan Pongsudhirak, a political scientist at Bangkok's Chulalongkorn University. Those populist TRT policies won Thaksin two terms in office and raised the expectations of an entire electorate. "Thai Rak Thai has profoundly changed Thailand," says Thitinan. "People have discovered that they've been neglected. They want better lives. They have hopes and dreams." What he calls "the ghost of TRT" hovers over the polling booths...
...does the specter of a resurgent Thai military. Thailand's generals seized power 15 months ago after long-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...
...Crying for the Past Yet much is riding on this election. Not only must it reintroduce a semblance of democracy after 15 months of flat-footed military rule, it must also restore the Thai people's faith in a political system that generated so much division and bitterness that the military was emboldened to send in its tanks. Sadly, restoring that faith is looking like a dim prospect. "This election is already well known for having almost every questionable, old politician from the bad old days of corrupt governments," commented the Bangkok Post in an editorial. Corruption appears rife...