Thaksin to Blame for Party's Poor Show  in Thailand's Parliamentary By-Election by Phairath Khampha 19 March 2002 Premier's attitude a key factor A leading Thai political scientist on March 4, 2002 attributed Thai Rak Thai's poor performance in the previous day's by-elections to Thaksin Shinawatra's attitude, saying he was the prime minister and should act like one. Prayat Hongthongkham, of Chulalongkorn University, said Mr Thaksin's attitude was among several factors which made the core government party score poorly. Unofficial results showed the Thai Rak Thai party won only four of the 14 seats up for grabs. "The prime minister should change his attitude. As head of the administration, he is supposed to be calm, collected and mature, not like a teenager afraid of losing face. What he should do is talk less and think before he speaks. Whatever he says will be judged by the public," Mr Prayat said. Besides Mr Thaksin's attitude, inefficiency in implementing the government populist policies, which now appear to have been not much more than hypocritically empty promises, the party MPs' neglect of voters, interference and intervention in the media most likely played a part in Thai Rak Thai's poor performance, Mr Prayat said. The voters, particularly the well-informed in Bangkok, had begun to realise that hypocritical policies and empty promises such as the 30-baht health care scheme might not work and had been nothing more than the purchase of votes from ignorant masses who did not understand the country's issues, he said. Mr Prayat said he received two gold cards issued under the health scheme despite the fact he was a state official and already covered by the state's medical welfare and benefits. Mr Prayat said opposition MPs had, on the other hand, kept in touch with the voters in their constituencies and won their confidence and trust. Pornchai Theppanya, of Ramkhamhaeng University, said the failure was due to Thai Rak Thai's decline in popularity. "The government's performance hasn't been so bad in the past year, so why did it fail in several constituencies? I think the fever is fading," he said. Mr Pornchai said Thai Rak Thai's success inthe January 2001 general election was nothing but a fad. "No doubt its popularity is in decline. The government has been here for just one year. In the next two years it could be worse," he said. Mr Thaksin on March 4 conceded his party had not fared well in the by-elections, but in an attempt to deflect the real cause he attributed it to low voter turnout rather than a drop in the party's popularity. "Voters are not required to vote in the party-list system, so there is no indicator of popularity," said the Thai Rak Thai leader. Mr Thaksin said no special strategies had been mapped out for the March 3 polls as he had been concentrating on solving the country's problems. The prime minister, in true Thai fashion, tried to blame it on others and also lashed out at the Election Commission for its repeated threats to issue a red card in one of the two constituencies in Bangkok. "The agency shouldn't have made statements like that because it apparently discouraged people from voting," Mr Thaksin said. This is despite the fact that by doing so the commission would have been helping to clean up Thailand's notoriously corrupt politics. 7 suspended MPs re-elected But despite the attempts to keep politics clean, the very same politics allowed corrupt politicians to run again, and seven out of twelve suspended MPs seeking March 3 re-elections won their seats back according to unofficial results released by the Election Commission. They were Vicharn Meenchainant, Payap Pankate, Lawan Tantikulpong (Thai Rak Thai), Oradee Suthsri, Kamol Jirapanvanich (Chart Thai), Boonchong Veesommai of New Aspiration and Thawatchai Arnampong of Chart Pattana. Overall, the ruling Thai Rak Thai won four seats, Chart Thai two, NAP two, Chart Pattana four and Democrat two seats. The poll agency reported a voter turn-out of 56%, which was higher than widely expected. Invalid ballots accounted for 1.9%. Bangkok registered a very low turnout with 38.2% in Constituency 4 and 43% in Constituency 26. In the 2001 general election the turnout was registered at 66%. Vote counting in Mukdahan was much slower than in other constituencies because of a high turnout and protests. EC also reported a high number of "no-vote," indicating boredom or rejection of the candidates. Among surprise winners were Democrat's Puttipong Punnakan of Bangkok's Constituency 4 who defeated Thai Rak Thai's Kannika Thammakesorn and Chart Pattana's Samret Atchariyaprasit who beat Thai Rak Thai's Pimpa Chantaraprasong in Nonthaburi.