LATE NEWS: No 2 By a Landslide!
Only 61% of eligible Chiang Mai city centre voters turned out to the polls on the 4th, but a decisive 24,384 of them voted for Tassanai Buranupakorn, candidate No 2 and nephew of a previous two-time landslide winner.
Surprise runner-up with 13,197 votes was a lady some thought a rank outsider, Wipawan Woraputthipong (No 7), while immediate former Mayor Dr Duantemduang trailed badly in 3rd place with only 6,958.
The poll was called after Ms Duantemduang was disqualified on a technicality over her residential status in the city, but new incumbent Khun Tassanai may face a far more serious hurdle.
A man wearing a red shirt (indicating support for ousted former Prime Minister Taxin Shinawat) was arrested while carrying a list of eligible voters and 24,000b in cash. If an investigation now under way by the Chiang Mai Election Office connects him to a candidate, that candidate will be disqualified, forced to pay for a new election and subject to a jail term of up to 10 years and a fine of up to 200,000b. The investigation should be complete within 2 weeks.
Notably, 4,444 of the 64,871 ballots handed in had the ‘abstain’ box ticked, showing what many observers interpet as dissatisfaction with all the candidates.
you note that ‘only 61%’of Chaing Mai’s voters turned out to vote in the recent Mayoral election, but that figure is in line with turnout figures in UK GENERAL ELECTIONS and rather higher than US General elections. Thus for a local election this figure is quite high. Furthermore it should surprise no-one that the “Farangs Favourite” Dr Pang, was deciseively beaten – she only won last time because the vote was conducted under the military dictatorship and the opposition (ie Thaksins supporters) were more or less prevented from campaigning.
One day, the ruling elite in this country will have to wake up to the fact that either they accept that the policies of Thaksin Shinawatra (and indeed the man himself) are the considered choice of the majority of the Thai people.