Bangkok - An opposition party candidate won a by-election in
Sakorn Nakorn province by a landslide, providing a small political
triumph for fugitive former prime minister Thaksin Shinawatra,
election officials said Monday.
Anurak Boonson of the Puea Thai Party which is loyal to Thaksin,
won 83,348 votes in the Sakorn Nakorn by-election compared with
Bhumjaithai Party candidate Pitak Chansri's 47,235 votes, according
to an unofficial poll count Monday morning.
Sundau's by-election was called in the north-eastern province,
deemed a stronghold for Thaksin, after the province's Puea Thai
member of parliament Pongsak Boonson was disqualified by a Supreme
Court ruling. Anurak is Pongsak's wife.
Political observers painted the by-election as a popularity
contest between Thaksin, who has been living in self-exile since
August and his former close ally Newin Chidchop, who switched camps
in December to help form a new coalition government led by Democrat
Party leader Abhisit Vejjajiva.
Newin, although barred from politics, is known as the chief
political organizer behind the Bhumjaithai Party, a coalition partner
in the current government.
Thaksin, a billionaire former telecommunications tycoon who was
prime minister from 2001 until September 2006, when he was toppled by
a coup, made personal telephone calls to district chiefs and
canvassers in Sakorn Nakorn to encourage them to rally support for
Anurak, news reports said.
Thaksin, who used his premiership to push through populist
policies that gave direct benefits to the poor, remains popular in
the north-east, Thailand's poorest region. That popularity apparently
has not worn off in Sakorn Nakorn.
'Thaksin fever is what we can't do anything about,' Bhumjaithai
party spokesman Supachai Jaisamut acknowledged in an interview with
the Bangkok Post.
Support for Thaksin reached a boiling point in April when the
ex-premier urged his followers to stage a 'people's revolution'
against Abhisit's government, prompting in a raid by his supporters
on a regional summit of the Association of South-East Asian Nations
in Pattaya.
The summit had to be cancelled.
The ex-premier, who is preparing to fight a legal battle in Thai
courts to have 2 billion dollars of his family wealth unfrozen in
Thai banks, is widely faulted for dividing Thailand, and encouraging
a class war between the have-nots and the Thai establishment.
Thaksin himself, however, still ranks among the 'haves.' Despite
the frozen funds, he continues to play a pivotal role in Thai
elections.
Thaksin is the key financier behind the Puea Thai opposition
party, insiders acknowledge.
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