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Published on December 24, 2007

To People Power supporters, party leader Samak Sundaravej is a saint who will return their beloved former leader and free 111 banned former Thai Rak Thai politicians from the electoral wilderness.

To his opponents, he is a merely a proxy for ousted prime minister Thaksin Shinawatra.

To the non-partisan, the veteran politician is known for his sharp tongue and culinary skills.

Yesterday was the 72-year-old politician's big day, even more significant than the 2000 Bangkok gubernatorial election, which he won in a landslide.

Although he did not have the chance to show off his sharp-tongued nature, Samak did show off his culinary side by ordering a lot of food.

The party leader got up at 5am, starting his day auspiciously, and gave alms to 10 monks from Bang Chan Temple.

Accompanied by his wife, Khunying Surat, Samak left home at 10.15am in a Toyota van and stopped by Rajawat market to buy some fruit.

Samak appeared in his uniform - regular grey safari shirt. He followed routine by buying food.

He is known as a good cook but on a day like this he had no time to cook himself. However, it took almost five hours along Bangkok streets for him to select his dishes.

From the market, he stopped for lunch at Kalong Restaurant on Sri Ayutthaya Road. He appeared in a good mood, speaking with reporters following him.

His menu included two curries, a salad, fried chicken, omelette, barbecued prawns, boiled blood cockle and palmyra fruit in syrup.

After finishing his lunch, he went to Phra Pradaeng district of Samut Prakan, where he wanted to buy kanom mor kaeng, or custard pudding, from a shop famous for it. He was out of luck.

He spent time talking to the shop owner before heading to party headquarters on Phetchaburi Road, arriving at 3.20pm, taking in Rama III and then Asoke and Sukhumvit roads.

His van entered the headquarters from the rear in an attempt to avoid reporters. He parked on the fourth-floor parking building, but Samak could not escape the journalists.

They wanted to get his reaction on his victory, as declared by exit polls. He refused to answer and told reporters to wait for a news conference at 8.30pm. He was relaxed and smiled and laughed before excusing himself.

Samak did give an exclusive interview to CNN and said if he became prime minister, he would seek amnesty for the 111 former Thai Rak Thai executives.

He told CNN that February 14 would be a good day for Thaksin to return to Thailand.

He said nothing until he appeared again at 8.45pm when he made his way to the jammed news conference.

Samak, seated with party secretary-general Surapong Suebwonglee, thanked all for waiting. He asked Surapong to reveal the unofficial election results.

He then thanked the voters before inviting any other party to join a People Power coalition.

Sucheera Pinijparakarn,

Veena Thoopkrajae

The Nation

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Abhisit tense on his big day, snaps at media over early exit poll finding, thanks staff at his re-designed office

Yesterday was judgement day for Democrat Party leader Abhisit Vejjajiva, a day that decided whether he would realise his ambition of becoming the next prime minister of Thailand.

Yet Abhisit chose to keep a low profile in the first half of the day. After voting with his with wife at a polling station on Sukhumvit Soi 31 in the morning,

Abhisit returned home and only joined other party leaders watching the ballot results at the Democrat Party headquarters at 1.45pm.

For a man widely tipped to become the next premier, Abhisit's behaviour was somewhat subdued compared to, say, deposed prime minister Thaksin Shinawatra, who went straight to a Starbucks at an upscale shopping mall with his family after voting in 2005. Media-savvy Thaksin knew the setting would make a great news picture.

However, Abhisit was in a different situation. He realised long before yesterday that the Democrats would not get the most votes and that whether his party could form the next government depended on the margin by which it lost to the People Power Party.

Faced with this situation, Abhisit lost his cool when a Channel 3 reporter asked for his reaction shortly after voting closed to a Suan Dusit Poll exit poll that suggested People Power would win 257 seats. Instead of answering the question, Abhisit retorted by questioning the credibility of the poll, saying: "I learned about this exit poll result last night [before votes were cast]."

The live interview with Abhisit was cut short and the Democrats later got party secretary-general Suthep Thaugsuban to limit any damage. Suthep said the party would prefer to wait to see whether People Power would gain more than half of the seats in the final result before deciding whether it should form the government.

Abhisit later postponed a scheduled press conference from 7.30pm till 9pm in a bid to wait until after People Power leader Samak Sundaravej had spoken to the media, at 8.30pm.

Samak announced that he was ready to form a coalition based on their 230 or so seats.

In contrast to their leader, the mood of Democrat supporters at the party headquarters was upbeat from early in the day, with the crowd growing bigger as the day went by. About 100 supporters were clustered to watch the counting results live on big LCD screens placed in front of the headquarters.

Whenever an update showed the Democrats leading People Power, the crowd would stand and cheer. Some of them booed and jeered whenever the news said People Power was ahead.

Before going to the party headquarters in the Kuang Aphayawong Building, where his office is on the second floor, Abhisit asked his driver to stop at the MR Seni Pramoj 100th Anniversary building in the same compound, where the interior decoration was recently adjusted according to feng shui beliefs.

Abhisit said he stopped at the building to thank party staff members working there.

Abhisit walked to the party headquarters amid cheers and shouts of "No 4! No 4!", the Democrats' party-list ballot number.

Abhisit then went up to his office, which had been moved the previous night to a bigger room with more windows through which he could see a small garden outside

Democrat Party director Pussadee Tamthai said she had changed Abhisit's office because a group of well-wishers offered to help correct the inauspicious layout and arrange a space according to feng shui beliefs.

She said the desk in Abhisit's previous office was located on the leeward side of the wind and close to the bathroom.

However, she was a Christian and knew nothing about feng shui, she said.

Abhisit said he was not aware of the plan to change his office.

The area around the statue of the Mother of the Earth, the symbol of the Democrat Party, in the building compound was also recently retiled to prepare for the election date.

However, the redecoration did not seem to have helped much, as Samak announced last night that People Power would form the new government.

Kornchanok Raksaseri,

Jeerawat Na Thalang

The Nation