Elections Loom for Tense Thailand

Thailand’s Prime Minister Abhisit Vejjajiva speaks to reporters after a news conference at the 18th ASEAN Summit in Jakarta May 8, 2011. (Photo: Reuters)

Monday, May 9, 2011
By SIMON ROUGHNEEN
The Irrawaddy

BANGKOK – Thai Prime Minster Abhisit Vejajjiva is scheduled to announce details of Thailand’s parliamentary elections this evening, with a July 3 date as voting day, after Thailand’s King Bhumibol Adulyadej endorsed the dissolution of parliament earlier today. The elections do not have to be held until the end of 2011, while an offer was made a year ago by Abhisit to hold a vote in October 2010. Early or late, Thailand’s parliamentary elections could offer a way out of the country’s five-year old cycle of protests and violence, or they could open a new chapter of division.

Last week, Human Rights Watch (HRW) published a report on Thailand’s 2010 protests, which resulted in 91 people being killed, most of them civilians. HRW cited the Thai government and Thai Army for inappropriate and excessive use of force in the report, while dismissing the Redshirt protesters’ claims that their demonstration was peaceful and saying that armed “Blackshirt†paramilitaries instigated street fighting on April 10 2010 as the Thai Army sought to remove protesters from the streets around Bangkok’s Democracy Monument.

“There are so many people in denial on both sides†said Brad Adams, the Executive Director for HRW Asia, speaking at the report launch in Bangkok on May 3. Urging transparent investigations into all of the killings during the protests, Adams refuted claims “that Thais want to forget and put the past behind them,†saying that “people in Thailand want justice like anyone else.â€

It is possible that Abhisit and his Democrat Party want an election win to offset the main criticisms made by opposition politicians in the Peua Thai party, as well as claims made by protest leaders during the March-May 2010 Redshirt demonstration in Bangkok. They say that Abhisit’s government came to power after legal sleight-of-hand and behind-the-scenes dealings saw the banning of Redshirt-aligned MPs and the defection of coalition partners, enabling the Democrats to form a coalition government in late 2008.

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