Protesters block small parties from election fray
Hundreds of protesters in Songkhla managed to prevent candidates from smaller parties from registering for the April 23 by-election by laying siege to the local election office.
Calling themselves "The People Who Love Songkhla", more than 500 protesters surrounded the election office on Saturday and dispersed only after the deadline for candidacy registration ended yesterday evening. They shouted expletives and booed anyone who came to register as a candidate for the election. They said they did not want the candidates of small parties to register because they wanted to see the Thai Rak Thai candidates fight alone against the people's voice. As a result of the siege, constituencies 4, 6 and 8 Songkhla have only Thai Rak Thai candidates. The Election Commission threatened to take legal action against the protesters, and suggested that the siege may have been politically motivated. Election Commissioner Prinya Nakchudtree said he would review the incident and punish the protesters if they had broken the law. However, he believed the protest was instigated. Thai Rak Thai deputy spokesman Jatuporn Promphant accused the Democrat Party of being "behind the scenes" in the protest. "There are reports that former Democrat MPs were among the protesters," he said. However, Democrat spokesman Ong-art Klampiboon dismissed the allegation, saying his party had a policy not to break election laws. In Phuket, while the Thai Rak Thai has no concerns about the getting the minimum requirement of 20 per cent of eligible votes, it still faces a "No" votes campaign against its candidates. In Yala's constituency 3, the party's Wadah faction member Burahanudin Useng will again have to try to get at least 20 per cent of the vote because he is contesting alone in this round of voting as well. Nakhon Si Thammarat seems to be the province with the least worries for the Thai Rak Thai because there are candidates from several smaller parties contesting in all constituencies. In fact, the Khonkhoplodnee Party fielded candidates for all remaining seats in the province after its candidate won a seat in the April 2 voting with just 3,000 votes. A political observer said unfilled seats might create a problem as the deadline for convening the House of Representatives was approaching and the EC may have to call a third round of voting to fill them. "If all the 500 seats are not filled, the House cannot convene, which means a new government cannot be formed until all 500 candidates have been elected," the observer said.
The Nation Songkhla
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