Preliminary Election Results
Trip Start
Nov 15, 2010
1
45
49
Trip End
Ongoing
Chiang Mai, Chiang Mai, Thailand
Sunday, July 3, 2011
Parliament has 500 seats
Red Shirt Puea Thai Party-- 313
Yellow Shirt (incumbent) Democrat Party-- 152
The remaining seats are divided up with the minor parties. Red shirts win an outright majority to form a government.
My favorite minor party candidate is a guy who owns the biggest chain of massage parlors in Bangkok. He has what he called an "anti-corruption dog" that he takes to haunts of politicians and tells him to "go sniff out corruption". The fact that a massage parlor guy is the voice of clean government is a commentary on the state of politics in Thailand.
Hopefully this margin will dissuade the Army from a coup.
In my last post on the run up to the election I got a couple of emails indicating that I had not shared the Democrat Yellow shirt point of view fairly. The fact is I don't know any Yellow shirts. There ain't none here in Chiang Mai.
Comments
Actual resuts are in-- Puea Thai wins 263 seats, not as many as the exit polls predicted, but an absolute majority nevertheless. Wisely, to keep the generals at bay, they have expressed a desire to form a coalition government with small parties.
Puea Thai formed a coalition government with five parties even though they had an absolute majority and could have gone it alone. Smart move to keep the ambitions of the generals in check.