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Sakoltee wins Suthep’s backing

SUPOJ WANCHAROEN

Former protest leader Suthep Thaugsuban has vouched for Bangkok governor candidate Sakoltee Phattiyakul as he is running independently and has a proven track record of fighting against “Thaksinocracy”.

Mr Suthep, who led the now-defunct People’s Democratic Reform Committee (PDRC) protest movement against the Pheu Thai Partyled administration, which was subsequently toppled by the 2014 coup, urged Bangkok voters to elect Mr Sakoltee who has been trailing in opinion polls. Mr Sakoltee fought side by side with Mr Suthep as an active PDRC co-leader.

In the build-up to Sunday’s governor poll, Mr Suthep took to his Facebook account yesterday to say Mr Sakoltee had won his endorsement for several reasons.

The independent candidate is wellqualified for City Hall’s top job on account of his background in law and his respectable family, Mr Suthep said.

Mr Sakoltee graduated with a law degree from Thammasat University and furthered his studies in the same field at George Washington University in the US.

The candidate also served as secretary to Jaran Pukditanakul, a former Constitutional Court judge, an experience that burnishes his credentials.

Mr Sakoltee served as deputy Bangkok governor for four years before stepping down to run for the governorship.

Mr Suthep said Mr Sakoltee is wellacquainted with the city’s problems and its people while his election promises are practical.

“Mr Sakoltee is genuinely independent with no covert support from any political party,” he said.

“Most importantly, he is not a lackey of former premier Thaksin Shinawatra, or a beneficiary of Thaksinocracy,” he said, referring to Thaksin’s deep-rooted influence and large-scale solidifying of political power.

“He waged a war against that system and we risked jail in the process,” he said.

Meanwhile, the Bangkok Metropolitan Administration (BMA) will deploy more than 100,000 officials to oversee Sunday’s election. Unofficial poll results are expected before midnight.

Deputy city clerk Suthathip Soniam said yesterday City Hall has been assigned by the Election Commission (EC) to assist in arrangements for the elections of both the governor and Bangkok councillors.

A total of 167,289 personnel will be sent to 6,817 polling stations, Ms Suthathip said, adding they have already rehearsed poll procedures. “The BMA is fully prepared and will ensure the polls are transparent and free of fraud,” she said.

Vote counting will be held at polling stations and the BMA’s strategy and evaluation department will help record and process the votes, she added.

Somchai Surakarnkul, chairman of the Bangkok local election committee, said ballot casting will run from 8am until 5pm.

Vote counting is expected to take about two hours and finish by 7pm. The results will be sent to the coordination centre of each district and the last polling station is expected to send in the results by 9pm.

After verification by officials, all the poll results will be delivered to the 2nd BMA Hall in Din Daeng district, Mr Somchai said.

He said the BMA expects to see 70% voter turnout. He urged voters to go to the polls early to avoid any potential rainfall that could obstruct their travel.

Officials will be on hand to help the elderly and voters with physical disabilities to cast their votes. Braille ballot papers will also be provided to help the blind and visually impaired.

Kriangkrai Chongcharoen, director of the BMA’s education department, said he has ordered 437 schools run by the BMA that serve as polling stations to be closed on Monday to allow health officials to clean and disinfect their premises and equipment.

Also yesterday, the Digital Television Association of Thailand, the Society for Online News Providers and 32 news outlets were working with the House committee on political development, mass communication and public participation, the National Telecom Plc, Advanced Info Service and several universities to report the results of all the elections.

Never has Bangkok’s gubernatorial contest been so much about Thailand. The poll this Sunday is not just about how Bangkok will be run but how Thailand will be ruled. Beyond the usual grievances and issues that traditionally hang over Bangkokians’ lives and livelihoods are larger forces at work. Whoever comes out on top will have much to say about the bigger national election that has to be held by this time next year.

As the Bangkok electorate has not had a vote for the capital’s governor in nearly a decade, the poll this Sunday is highly anticipated. The air is full of excitement as contenders put up billboards and engage in televised debates, offering various programmes and policies. What is most notable, compared to the last national poll in March 2019, is that the poll-regulating agencies, particularly the Election Commission and the Constitutional Court, do not seem to be assertive as the stakes for Bangkok’s governorship are smaller.

No political party dissolution or bans on candidates appear in store this time. On current trends, the vote this Sunday looks set to be free and fair, although the role of these poll regulators in shaping final outcomes can never be ruled out. Another notable trend is that voting is correlated with civilian leadership and that military generals have taken a hands-off approach so far. Getting civil-military relations right is the most daunting challenge of Thailand’s political system. Having a vote, getting the electorate involved and focusing on civilian candidates are a recipe to build on to keep the top brass out of power.

Another new trend to welcome is digital and social media platforms. The traditional media, both print and television, have been disappointing as they have fallen behind the curve of truth and reality, avoiding hard issues and tough investigative questions. In their place are new media outlets, such as The Standard, which held the fairest and most dynamic debate among governor candidates during the last campaign stretch. The emergence of these new interfaces among social, digital and online media is a boon to the political environment.

For the cut and thrust, what is conspicuous in this Bangkok contest is that the field of candidates mirrors national politics, spread out across the political spectrum and divided roughly into pro-establishment conservatives and anti-coup progressives. Candidates within each camp vary in the degree of where they stand in relation to the role of established centres of power, particularly the military and the monarchy. Progressives want reform, whereas conservatives more or less favour the status quo.

Such is the fundamental difference between this Bangkok governor election and its antecedents. Campaign issues this time run the usual gamut, including schooling under the Bangkok Metropolitan Administration, childcare, public buses, road and sidewalk conditions, air quality, flooding, access for the handicapped, bureaucratic inefficiencies and corruption, and so forth. Yet the big topics that have captivated voter attention have included motorcades, street protests, and the response to another military coup.

Among the 30 candidates, a clutch of four conservative and three progressive candidates have stood out. First and foremost is the incumbent, Pol Gen Aswin Kwanmuang, who was appointed to the governorship in October 2016 by the military junta that seized power in May 2014, replacing his elected predecessor MR Sukhumbhand Paribatra. At that time, the National Council for Peace and Order, had a decree known as Article 44 at its disposal, allowing dictatorial and unaccountable power.

Even though he has resigned to run as an independent, it is clear that Mr Aswin is a coup legacy with military support. If he wins, then the military and coup-makers among them should be applauded for picking the right candidate to get re-elected. Another coup-related candidate is Sakoltee Phattiyakul, who was a leader of the People’s Democratic Reform Committee that staged street protests that crippled Bangkok for months from October 2013, paving the way for the coup. If he comes out on top, it will mean that what the PDRC and what its royalist-conservative and pro-coup stand retains strong support in the capital.

Also worthy of mention among conservative candidates is Rosana Tositrakul, who was instrumental in an earlier yellow-clad movement that laid the groundwork for the September 2006 coup. If she ends up with a sizeable showing, it will signal that the Bangkok electorate is still concerned about the corruption of the early 2000s under the Thaksin Shinawatra administration. Similarly, Suchatvee Suwansawat of the Democrat Party is not expected to win but how many votes he earns will reflect how voters view his party and its performance in recent years. These four candidates on the right of centre are generally anti-Thaksin but not anti-coup, pro-status quo and less inclined towards fundamental structural reforms.

Left of centre are Chadchart Sittipunt, Wiroj Lakkhanaadisorn and Sita Divari. As with the four conservative candidates, these three are engaged in voter cannibalisation among their overlapping support bases. From a defected faction of the Pheu Thai party associated with Thaksin, Mr Sita is unlikely to win outright but his numbers will have something to say about Pheu Thai, whether a faction that bolts to form a new party can do well electorally.

More notable are Mr Chadchart and Mr Wiroj who are vying for the same liberalprogressive voter bases in Bangkok. As transport minister under the Yingluck Shinawatra government prior to the 2014 coup, Mr Chadchart threw his hat in the ring more than two years ago long before the poll was announced, working on livelihood projects in low-income neighbourhoods. His platform is all about running Bangkok more efficiently and smartly, tackling corruption and red tape while offering better ways to live in the urban metropolis.

From the Move Forward Party, Mr Wiroj is campaigning for the Bangkok governorship from a national platform of rule of law, equality and social justice. The difference between them came down to one question in The Standard’s widely viewed debate. If there is a coup, Mr Wiroj declared that he would lead a people’s protest movement against it. When it comes to the public inconvenience of road blocks, Mr Wiroj was not afraid to mention royal motorcades that required better traffic coordination by the police.

If Mr Wiroj surges ahead of the rest, especially by a convincing margin, it will mean a very different kind of Bangkokians has emerged in preference for fundamental structural reforms of traditional institutions. If Mr Chadchart comes out ahead, it will suggest that change and reform at the national level might have to come more gradually, and that Bangkok will see a facelift and upgrade in how it operates.

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2022-05-20T07:00:00.0000000Z

2022-05-20T07:00:00.0000000Z

https://bangkokpost.pressreader.com/article/281483574990609

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