• 
• 

Published on November 6, 2007

Well, even though the Election Commission has yet to enforce tighter regulations on the money spent during the election campaign,

politicians are likely to spend far beyond any such restrictions.

Bad politicians give away money to canvassers, who give it to voters or organise recreation activities, tours, temple fairs or even car down payments to buy their way up to Parliament.

This time around, the vicious circle of Thai politics is about to return, albeit through different techniques.

In the past, canvassers literally gave banknotes to voters to buy their votes. Banknotes in bulk were often found shortly before the election date.

In rural areas, vote canvassers were even seen handing out banknotes to voters at the poll stations.

But such techniques seem to be outdated as the crooks are likely to be caught in the act.

What's next? Prime Minister Surayud Chulanont confided to the Election Commission last month about the more sophisticated techniques used to buy votes.

Matichon newspaper recently outlined new vote-buying tactics that would still enable the Election Commission to trace back the money trail, we have to stress again, to very bad politicians.

First, the politician transfers money to the canvasser. He registers their names as corporate entities to avoid inspection and they deposit the money to the accounts of the vote buyers who can withdraw the money through ATM machines.

Or the politician transfers money to the vote canvasser who is a member of the Smart First Card issued by the 7-Eleven convenience store. Then a vote-buyer who has a Smart First Card can withdraw the money, escaping inspection by the authorities.

The introduction of the ATM system in which depositors can withdraw money without even having to use a card also provides a new technique for the canvassers to give away money.

Voters who know the ATM number can just withdraw money from the politicians through ATM machines nation-wide.

But the politicians should not think that they will get away with this trick easily since 7-Eleven executives

told Matichon that they can trace back all transactions.

Bank of Ayudhya, which offers a non-card ATM withdrawal service, also records the telephone numbers of the recipients.

In short, these politicians should have second thoughts before buying votes. Otherwise, they might not be caught red-handed but - unlike election candidates - this kind of electronic data doesn't lie.

Jeerawat@nationgroup.com

The Nation