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Thai Voting Is Disrupted by Protesters
International New York Times | 2 Feb. 2014
BANGKOK
— Protesters seeking to overthrow the government of Prime Minister
Yingluck Shinawatra disrupted voting in Thailand’s general election on
Sunday, in what appeared to be a prelude to a period of continued
political paralysis in the country.
Opposition
forces, who represent a minority in the country and are seeking an
appointed government, say they will challenge the election in the courts
while continuing their street demonstrations in Bangkok.
In
a sign of the dysfunction plaguing Thailand, one of those unable to
vote Sunday was an election commissioner, Somchai Srisutthiyakorn, whose
polling station in Bangkok was shut down because protesters blocked the
delivery of ballot boxes.
Furious
Bangkok residents blocked from voting filed complaints at police
stations while protesters nearby, many of them looking threatening with
military-style clothing and covered faces, blocked access to roads near
polling centers.
“This is the dark ages!” said Wantanee Suthachiva, a businesswoman who was turned away at her polling station.
In
a stark illustration of the divisions in Thailand, voting went smoothly
in northern, northeastern, central and eastern regions of Thailand. The
disruptions were limited to Bangkok and the south. Voting was
successfully carried out in nearly 90 percent of the country’s 375
electoral districts.
But
the disruptions by protesters — both on Sunday and in the registration
process leading up to the vote — will force a series of smaller
elections before any government can be formed, a process that will most
likely take months.
The
leader of the protests, Suthep Thaugsuban, who urged Thais to boycott
the vote on the grounds that it would return Ms. Yingluck to power,
described Sunday’s election as the day “when you choose your side.”
Among
those who did not vote were television actors and actresses and middle
and upper class Thais in Bangkok, who along with southerners form the
core of the protesters. Rather than voting, protesters held what they
called a "picnic" on the streets of central Bangkok that included live
music and political speeches.
The
protest movement includes many powerful Thais. But also significant on
Sunday was the list of high-profile Thais who voted, including the
country’s most senior military commanders. The protesters have pleaded
with the military to intervene in the power struggle and help them carry
out their seemingly quixotic plan for an unelected "people’s council”
that would replace Parliament.
Prayuth
Chan-ocha, the powerful head of the army, who has given ambiguous
signals to both the governing party and the protesters in recent weeks,
appeared eager to avoid waiting reporters and left the polling station
so hastily that he forgot to retrieve his identity card. But his vote
was taken by many as a signal that the military saw an electoral
solution to the power struggle.
The
army has launched a dozen coups in modern Thai history. One military
officer, who declined to be identified because of the sensitivity of the
matter and who was called in to keep peace in Bangkok on Sunday, said
the army itself was divided and that it feared a backlash by government
supporters if it were to intervene.
Another
would-be arbiter in the crisis, the 86-year-old King Bhumibol
Adulyadej, is ailing and has been silent about the political standoff.
Thailand
has had many interruptions to democratic rule since the absolute
monarchy was abolished more than eight decades ago, including the coups.
But the country’s electoral system — the organization of elections and
the transparent counting of ballots — had until this election been
praised as a model for less developed neighboring countries. Opposition
parties have conceded defeat in all of the recent elections and there
have been no challenges — until now — to the legitimacy of the process.
The
Democrat Party and the protesters justify their opposition to the
election on the grounds that Ms. Yingluck and her brother Thaksin
Shinawatra, a billionaire tycoon and former prime minister, are corrupt
and disregard the rights of the political minority.
But
many independent observers see a naked grab for power by opposition
forces and their allies in some of the independent state agencies and
the courts.
Nattakorn
Devakula, a prominent commentator and one of a handful of Thai
aristocrats who are vocally against the protest movement, lashed out on
Friday. “Those orchestrating this entire sham of a putsch will see their
comeuppance in the end and it will be hell,” he wrote on Twitter.
The
government has strong support in the north and northeastern part of the
country, mainly because Mr. Thaksin was the first Thai politician to
specifically design policies that targeted the needs of poorer rural
Thais.
Mr.
Thaksin, who was prime minister from 2001 until the military ousted him
from power in 2006, has been widely accused of using his power to
further his business interests, cowing the media and seeking a monopoly
on power. He was convicted of abuse of power in a politicized trial in
2008 and lives in self-imposed exile.
Verapat
Pariyawong, a Harvard-trained lawyer and commentator, said there was no
denying the governing party’s faults. The governing party "is surely a
big part of the problem," he said in an e-mail, "but to overthrow them
and the rule of law altogether will only provide them with legitimate
call for more support.”
Mr.
Verapat believes opposition forces will call for the election’s
annulment on the grounds that it was not free and fair because of the
many disruptions. He calls this argument “absurd” since the opposition
forces themselves were responsible for the problems plaguing the
election.
A nullified election, he said, “would lead to much more blood on the streets.”
Although
the Democrat Party, which represents the Bangkok establishment, has
boycotted the election and thus will be excluded from Parliament, every
other major Thai party contested the election, and a number have vowed
to become Thailand’s new opposition force.
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