Election shows Somsak's clout in Sukothai faded

The result was a heavy blow to Somsak, who has long counted Sukhothai as his stronghold. It was from there that he and his wife, Anongwan, were elected to Parliament time and again. His political support in Sukhothai even enabled Somsak to grab a Cabinet place in various governments.

Sukhothai saw a historic high voter turnout of 80 per cent of on Sunday. But when the votes were counted, the two MP seats from Constituency 1 went to Samphan Tangbenjaphol and Wirat Wiriyapong of the Democrat Party.

Contesting under the banner of the Matchima Thipataya Party Somsak's candidates Jamjen Jitthorn and Prasart Thongpaknam flopped this time. Even Anongwan could not win as a partylist candidate in Zone 1, which covers Sukhothai.

Jamjen won the most votes when he ran for the Senate from Sukhothai, while Prasart has been elected several times as an Mpfor the province. Both appeared to enjoy overwhelming political support when Somsak was fully in charge of his stronghold.

However, Somsak's firm grip on Sukhothai was loosened earlier this year when the Constitution Tribunal banned him and 110 other executives of the nowdisbanded Thai Rak Thai Party from politics for five years.

There were whispers among Sukhothai residents that they were fed up with Thepsuthins because even after electing them so many times they had yet to do anything for the province or their constituents.

"We see only that they are getting richer," said one voter.

Amid such sentiment, the Democrat candidates sailed to victory. Samphan and Wirat had failed in previous elections, but garnered a huge number of votes this time because the Democrat Party has recently become very popular in the province.