In Asia: Weekly Insight and Features from Asia

Nearly five months have passed since Thailand elected its first-ever woman prime minister, Yingluck Shinawatra, younger sister of the controversial former prime minister, Thaksin Shinawatra, who was ousted in a military coup in 2006.

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Last week, Thailand made history when its parliament elected its first-ever woman Prime Minister, Yingluck Shinawatra, one month after her Pheu Thai party swept the July 3 elections. However, Prime Minister Yingluck’s ability to rise to the top of Thailand’s political echelon is not because of her political acumen.

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Thailand’s political landscape throughout much of the 20th century was populated by numerous regional or personality-based parties, and characterized by weak coalition governments. Alliances and coalitions were made and broken easily, as parties sought the best deal for their constituents and members.

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Contrary to the predictions made by the plethora of political pundits watching Thailand’s elections that the Democrats would have difficulty holding their five current seats in Thailand’s Deep South, the Democrats instead ran away with nine out of 11 constituent seats.

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At a polling station in Chiang Mai province, election officials were busy counting votes just moments after the polls closed for Thailand’s July 3 general election. As counting continued, each ballot was placed aside in a pile, visible to the large crowd observing.

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Having served as a short-term international observer for the general election in Thailand earlier this month on July 3, I unfortunately became somewhat of an expert in the dark arts of vote buying. As one of 60 observers from the Asian Network for Free Elections (ANFREL) deployed around the country…

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At first glance, the lead-up to Thailand’s July 3 national parliamentary election seems little different from previous electoral countdowns. The campaign period has been fairly low-key, with political leaders occupied for the most part in defining their individual campaign personas and fairly measured in their comments on the character and record of opponents. Only now, in the closing days of the campaign, have reciprocal criticisms borne a sharper edge.

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Between March and May 2010, Thailand experienced its worst href=”http://asiafoundation.org/in-asia/2010/05/19/thailand-black-may-redux/”>political violence in decades. Since then, Prime Minister Abhisit Vejjajiva has insisted that he and his government are committed to national reconciliation. Shortly afterwards, a truth and reconciliation commission was established to investigate the military crackdown that culminated in May…

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Thai elections can be challenging to follow for even the most ardent political watchers. On July 3, Thai voters will head to the polls for the 26th time since the country became a Constitutional Monarchy in 1932. This means that, over the past 79 years, Thais on average have cast their ballot every three years.

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