Thai General Election, 2 February 2014

[International Brotherhood of Bernard]

I haven't seen it discussed much here, but Thai PM Yingluck Shinawatra has dissolved parliament early and called for new elections on February 2nd. www dot dw.de/thai-prime-minister-yingluck-shinawatra-pledges-dissolution-of-parliament-elections/a-17279397 (sorry, I can't include links yet) Thoughts on this? My gut says she wins, but this could end up all over the place.

[jaichind]

It is not clear that Democrat Party will participate.  If it does not it is then an election about turnout.  A high enough turnout would be seen as an endorsement of Yingluck.

[jaichind]

Thailand's powerful military has declared its support for elections set for February in a blow to the country's protest movement that has crippled the government of PM Yingluck.  Now the ball is back in the court of the Democrat party on weather they will contest these polls.

[jaichind]

Thailand’s former Prime Minister Abhisit Vejjajiva was formally indicted Thursday on murder charges in overseeing a deadly crackdown in 2010.   Abhisit is also the leader of the Democrat Party.

[opebo]

If these elections take place, the Red/Thaksin party will win of course.  I'm not sure what the army is thinking.  Perhaps the government (and hopefully any new red government) is/will be sufficiently weak that the Network can still exert considerable control without an outright coup.

[opebo]

Yay!:

http://bangkokpost.com/news/local/386060/abhisit-democrats-to-boycott-polls

[Filuwaúrdjan]

There's nothing quite like an ironically named political party.

[Knives]

They're boycotting because they can't win and then they'll claim that the will of the people has been subverted. The Democrat party are a pack of losers and I hope they get crushed.

[opebo]

I couldn't be happier.  This is exactly as my colleagues predicted.

[opebo]

I just had a chat with one of my red colleagues tonight - he expressed a great deal of doubt now that the election would take place.  Just a few days ago he thought it would, today he was in grave doubt.

[politicus]

There's nothing quite like an ironically named political party.

Democratic is up there with Liberal and Socialist competing for the most common ironic party name.

[Zanas]

There's nothing quite like an ironically named political party.

Democratic is up there with Liberal and Socialist competing for the most common ironic party name.

The Democratic Party of Turkmenistan being one of the funniest.

[Famous Mortimer]

The courts wisely and surprisingly rejected an opposition demand to annul the elections on the grounds that they weren't all held in one day.

Wisely, because the reason they weren't able to be held on one day was opposition sabotage (blocking polling stations, causing them to be closed by police, and forcing by-elections to be announced)

Surprisingly, because in the past, they had sided with the opposition in basically the exact same situation.

Maybe the Thai establishment has finally given up on keeping the Thaksin supporters out of power.