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Published on November 8, 2007

 The Chartthai Party stole the limelight from Matchimathipataya on the first day of candidate registration for party-list MP candidates at the Thai-Japan Youth Centre in Din Daeng yesterday.

A total of 18 parties were present at the draw of numbers yesterday morning.

Outside the stadium there was a festive mood. Matchima-thipataya had organised a parade of "Lions and Dragons" - a Chinese symbol of prosperity - to both welcome its leader Prachai Leophairatana and other key members, including secretary-general Anongwan Thepsuthin, who arrived a little after 7am.

But the parade, and the party's large convoy of campaign pick-up trucks, could only wait outside the compound as inside the stadium, where the draw took place, the spotlight turned to Chartthai. Its supporters wore shocking pink T-shirts. Many of them were attractive young women who donned T-shirts and knotted them at the side to give an extra sexy look.

The Chartthai supporters' voices were louder than any other group. They also had a troupe of long-drum dancers, and voiced support for the party whenever the chance arose - and showed no disappointment when leader Banharn Silapa-archa drew the number 13.

As soon as Banharn got the number, his supporters placed stickers with the number 13 on their posters.

Veteran politician Sanan Kachornprasart accompanied Banharn almost the entire time, yet he was low key and quiet.

In contrast, the two major parties competing in the election - People Power and the Democrats - had a simpler approach, with their supporters just holding flags, banners and posters of the leaders.

When Democrat leader Abhisit Vejjajiva arrived and was about to get out of his car, a cheerleader for his supporters told them to "scream loud" - but they hardly raised the roof.

However, Abhisit's arrival, just after 7.30am, caused chaos among the media waiting to interview him. He kept saying, "Take it easy. Let me sign my name" - so the media scrum simply followed him inside the compound. Police and security officers then had to close the gate to limit the number of people trying to enter.

Before Abhisit's departure, Democrat supporters waiting outside the compound shouted "Ber see (number 4)", which the party drew, the same as in the 2005 poll. Many of them, mostly middle-aged and older women, screamed for the "young-face" party leader, who was still circled by a mob of reporters.

"This is a boon for saving as many party posters with ballot No 4 can be reused," Abhisit said, adding that the party could save at least Bt400,000 in campaign posters' cost.

Meanwhile, People Power's Samak Sundaravej showed up first and sneaked into the stadium before the others. He appeared to have a prepared speech for the live TV crews.

He said two parties had been trying to please the military. Voting for them would lead to another coup, while voting for PPP would be like a protest against coups.

After getting the number 12, Samak told reporters outside the stadium the number was fine for the party as one dozen was easy to remember. He asked reporters jokingly if they had a problem with the number, as it comes before number 13.

Number 12 would receive more than half of all the votes, he declared.

Earlier, he had left an area outside the stadium, furious with a live television programme, which also asked Abhisit for an interview at the same time - and from then on only talked to reporters outside the stadium.

Puea Pandin leader Suwit Khunkitti arrived just minutes after Abhisit. He said any number was the party's lucky number as it "thinks good, and does good".

Taking the second last draw, when only numbers 1 and 9 were left - but much desired by political parties - Suwit got number 1. That left number 9 for the Pracharaj Party.

Pracharaj leader Snoh Thienthong arrived at the stadium with actor Sombat Methanee at 8.15am. With Snoh arriving late he had to accept the last number left, but the Pracharaj Party was deemed quite lucky. Nine is regarded as a lucky number.

Snoh had pretended to "mix the ping pong balls" which had the numbers on them - even though there was only one number left.

Ruam Jai Thai Chart Pattana's Pradit Pattaraprasit and Suwat Liptapanlop arrived at 8.30am, following leader Chetta Thanajaro, who rushed into the building before giving a brief interview. The party received number 2 for its party-list candidates.

 Kornchanok Raksaseri,

 Sucheera Pinijparakarn

 The Nation