......On Tuesday one candidate succumbed to the rigors of Thai democracy: Leena Jungjunga was disqualified for performing a song-and-dance routine on the back of a truck flanked by transvestites and scantily clad women. The Election Commission ruled that Leena had breached the law banning public performances to attract the attention of unsuspecting voters. She is threatening to sue.
But as the campaign drags on, people are becoming less sure of whom they will vote for - eleventh-hour polling suggested about half of the 3.9 million eligible voters were undecided. Still, 80% said they intended to vote, unless it rained.
Over the past few weeks, the poll has evolved from being a vote to solve the capital's perpetual traffic nightmares to one billed as an indirect referendum on Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra's style of governance. This shift has gained attention in the wake of more visible signs as to whom Thaksin favors to win the poll, since his Thai Rak Thai (Thais Love Thai, or TRT) party is not fielding its own candidate.
Now, as the race enters its final leg, Thaksin has launched a last-minute assault on his Democrat rivals, who are threatening to mount a comeback through Sunday's election.
The premier's announcement at last week's cabinet meeting that it was time the Thai capital got a female to head the metropolitan government administration for the first time in its history removed all doubts about Thaksin's favorite - "independent" candidate Pavena Hongsakul.
Thaksin's recent publicity whirlwind, which included a hastily arranged television interview on Wednesday night with well-known commentator Sorrayuth Suthassanachinda, has coincided with a significant drop in popularity ratings for Pavena, the English-language daily The Nation reported on Thursday. The efforts may do more harm then help, however, as Pavena's ratings began to slip after TRT gave her its backing.
What the TRT does not want, say analysts, is for Apirak Kosayodhin, the candidate of the country's main opposition Democrat Party, to triumph as Bangkok's next governor. The head of a leading mobile-phone company until turning to politics for this poll, Apirak is almost assured of middle-class support. Currently, he is up there with Pavena as a front-runner in a field of 22 candidates.
Pavena, however, is not a greenhorn in Bangkok's political milieu. She was a parliamentarian representing a party that is among the coalition led by the ruling TRT. She also was a candidate in the last race for Bangkok governor in 2000. Pavena, an accomplished campaigner for women's and children's rights, has been attracting the lion's share of media coverage.
"Pavena's candidacy has become a referendum to gauge the popularity of the TRT and Thaksin in Bangkok," Thitinan Pongsudhirak, a political scientist at Bangkok's Chulalongkorn University, said in an interview. A defeat for Pavena would be "a loss of face for the TRT", he explained, because the government has been pursuing many strategies to defeat Apirak.
The prime minister, he said, cannot afford to ignore the sentiments of the voters in the capital - the most financially powerful and influential city in the country - in the run-up to the general elections, due in less than five months.
Other observers of the Thai political scene assert that the stakes for the governing TRT have been raised by an outpouring of anti-Thaksin sentiments from predictable and unpredictable quarters in the capital, which is known for its ability to overthrow governments with strong rural bases, according to a report in The Nation.
"There is a noticeable anti-Thaksin sentiment coming to the surface and this will play a part in Sunday's polls," Kavi Chongkittavorn, a columnist and an editor at The Nation told Inter Press Service. "Some of Thaksin's strongest supporters and members of the elite and the middle class are also saying things openly, very critical of the prime minister," he said. "It may produce an anti-Thaksin protest vote against Pavena."
Over the weekend, the Thai premier received a telling political blow when his political mentor and a TRT adviser, Chamlong Srimuang, accused him of undermining the Southeast Asian country's still-young democracy. "Am I a villain today for being the one who invited Thaksin into politics?" he was quoted in The Nation on Monday as having said. To much of the voting public, Sunday's vote is about whether Thaksin's domination and expansionism should be checked.
To counter Thaksin's power - his party enjoys an unprecedented majority in parliament after a thumping victory in the 2001 general elections - Chamlong is urging Bangkok's residents to vote another candidate into power aside from Pavena.
Chamlong's criticism, arising from fears that the TRT is aiming to secure more than 400 out of 500 available seats at the next parliamentary elections, has also been echoed among academics, former bureaucrats and non-governmental groups.
Critics of Thaksin, who was a billionaire business tycoon before he became prime minister, were given a reminder this week about what they could face if they consistently take him or his telecommunication-business empire on openly.
On Monday, Thaksin's Shin Corp (lol FF) filed a 400 million baht (US$10 million) libel suit against the Thai Post newspaper and a free-media activist, Supinya Klangnarong. It was the consequence of a comment made by Supinya that appeared in the Thai-language paper alleging that Shin Corp had benefited financially because of its founder being the premier.
Journalists in the country's print media have been pressured into silence through other means, while academics and bureaucrats have received verbal lashings from Thaksin after challenging high-profile government policies......
This week TRT sources told The Nation that Bangkok-based army, navy and air force personnel had been directed to vote as a bloc for Pavena, potentially delivering tens of thousands of votes her way. Employees of Thaksin's vast network of companies have also been instructed to vote for Pavena.
If this campaign - replete with truck-mounted loudspeakers and dancing girls - is anything to go by, the stage is set for fierce competition in the nationwide parliamentary poll that is set for January. On Wednesday Democrat member of parliament (MP) Juti Krairirk accused TRT of having bought the country's entire supply of plastic boarding used make candidates' billboards.
He expressed his concern about the opposition having to buy its billboards from ruling party candidates at ridiculous prices because suppliers could not assure him of new stock until after the election. TRT MPs publicly mocked him for not having enough money to bankroll his campaign.
