If in fact the election goes ahead as scheduled, the population is divided. While some plan to go to polling booths on that day, others are not sure if casting a vote would suggest they support Thai Rak Thai, which is the only large political party working to lure voters to polling booths, while opposition parties are boycotting the election.

For voters like us, no matter which parties are boycotting the election, we should go to polling booths to exercise a basic right that many people in the world are still desperately fighting for.

Sure, the incentive for turning up could be different for each of us. Those in rural areas could be there to vote for Thai Rak Thai in the belief that the populist policies will continue, and though anti-Thaksin protesters may condemn them for this, their motives should be understood.

For years rural people have been living in poverty. Once in a while some politician may have poured money in for roads or other infrastructure, and though the roads or bridges may be useful, the money was really intended for big construction companies in those particular provinces. Never before have these rural people received money or other benefits directly, but now there is the free medical programme, the small and medium loan programme, and the People's Bank.

Economists are concerned that these schemes are plunging ordinary folk into huge debts, but this is not a matter of concern around their dinner tables - in a short while some government or other will step in to help them, as in the past.

Some Bangkok people could also go to polling booths to vote for the ruling party, hoping that it will then proceed with the mass-transit investments, a programme crucial to easing the capital's traffic snarls.

Meanwhile, some city folk may head off to the polls and vote for nobody, just to show their resentment towards Thai Rak Thai which has spent buckets of their tax money - mostly contributed by salarymen or the so-called middle classes - to finance populist policies.

Some folks who are living in Prawet and Bang Phli could also vote against Thai Rak Thai, which plans to turn the two Bangkok districts into part of Suvarnabhumi Metropolis. If that creation proceeds as planned, they would lose the right to elect their governor and their political rights would be exercised through a special administrative body.

These people should fight to the end. They should protect their voting rights, no matter what the vote is for.

achara_d@nationgroup.com