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Thailand’s Collaborative Blog

Thailand: Yellow-shirt party to boycott election?

By Siam Voices Mar 25, 2011

By Panuwat Panduprasert

The yellow-shirt PAD appears to be stepping up its mission to “clean up Thai politics” as key leader Sondhi Limthongkul urged the New Politics Party (NPP), the movement’s electoral wing, to boycott the forthcoming general election.

On March 23, while delivering his usual nightly diatribes against pretty much everyone associated with either Thaksin or the current government, Sondhi turned his attention to the snap election which is likely to be held in early July (see WSJ‘s report). The media mogul declared on the PAD stage that the NPP should not participate in this election.

“It has been proven beyond doubt that political parties will never ever act in the public interest. Everything is done only for power and money,” Sondhi was quoted in ASTV Manager as saying. “For this reason, the five PAD core leaders have reached an agreement to begin campaigning for a ‘No Vote’ once the election is definitely called. We will also advise the NPP to refrain from fielding any candidates.”

PAD core leader Sondhi Limthongkul in 2006. Pic: Wikimedia Commons

Although the PAD has been struggling for relevance of late — its ongoing encampment at Bangkok’s Makkawan Bridge fails to draw large enough crowds to destablise the current Democrat-led coalition — the movement still has fervent supporters who are willing to play along with its fierce anti-Cambodia, anti-Abhisit and anti-politician agendas.

As far as the NPP is concerned, however, it is unclear how much influence Sondhi and the other core leaders of the PAD have over the party. While it is true that the NPP is the offshoot of the yellow shirts, currently Somsak Kosaisook is the only one of the PAD’s five core leaders to hold an official position in the party. Sondhi himself used to be the party’s leader but stood aside in May 2010.

For now, the NPP is run mainly by people with connections to the PAD but is not necessarily under the PAD’s direct command. It remains to be seen whether the party will really refuse to take part in the polls. A report in Thai Post (in Thai) indicates that Sondhi’s statement has caused a rift between the NPP and the PAD leadership.

The act of boycotting the election would also bring with it a set of perplexing questions. Sondhi’s reasoning seems to be that all politicians are bad, therefore we should not be playing their game by participating in the polls. But if the current crop of politicians are all evil, why not offer people a chance to choose someone new and different? By refusing to take part, the NPP would essentially limit rather than expand people’s choice and thus allow the same ‘evil’ people to be returned to power. What is there to be gained by standing on the sideline? Considering the NPP’s disastrous performances in Bangkok’s local elections in August 2010, one would suspect that boycotting the upcoming election may be nothing more than a face-saving exercise in order to save the party from another round of public humiliation.

Panuwat Panduprasert is a politics lecturer at Chiang Mai University. He can be followed on Twitter at @tumbler_p .