Diligent planning helps Yingluck
Support teams lay efficient groundwork for Pheu Thai's PM candidate on her campaign trail
Much of the credit should go to the party's support teams that work hard behind the scenes to prevent any mistake while ensuring pleasant settings at every place to which Yingluck goes.
Yingluck Shinawatra, the Pheu Thai Party's prime ministerial candidate, has been seen in different media in picture-perfect settings during her election campaigning at different locations in the country.
On her recent campaigning at Nopparat Rajathanee Hospital in Bangkok's Min Buri district, the advance team planned Yingluck's walking route before she arrived. Communicating through two-way radios, the campaign team members agreed that she should first pay homage to a portrait of His Majesty the King at the hospital.
Her walking route was surveyed in advance and Yingluck was closely guarded by female bodyguards wearing black caps, while their male colleagues provided protection from a short distance. A group of female politicians and local MPs also accompanied Yingluck during her trip and Pheu Thai supporters carried campaign posters behind her.
The composition made perfect photos for print and television media.
However, sometimes arrangements are made about where the supporters should be standing in order to make a good composition. During Yingluck's visit to Imperial department store in Samrong, Samut Prakan province, hundreds of welcoming Pheu Thai supporters were told to wait for her at a picturesque point of the main entrance.
Security seems to be particularly tight in areas considered a Pheu Thai stronghold. It is because there are often many people who want to get as close as possible to Yingluck. Male guards formed rows on both sides and allowed space in the middle for Yingluck's entourage to go by. Female bodyguards locked arms among themselves while walking along with her and other party politicians. Anyone who wants to approach her will have to come from the front only. But they have to be screened by the advance team's bodyguards first.
During her visit to crowded places - such as the one last Friday that involved seven fresh markets in Samut Prakan, which was observed by this reporter, the advance team guided their colleagues around Yingluck on which way to go. However, it was the top Pheu Thai candidate who decided where to drop by, have some chats with the locals, and do things like prying open a durian or making a cup of coffee at roadside shops.
Thanks to her down-to-earth image, Yingluck could mingle well with people in the streets. She even bought coupons by herself during lunchtime at the Imperial department store's food court. From time to time, she had to turn away from her food to chat with supporters. A close aide had to ask the supporters to let Yingluck finish her lunch first.
Yingluck, who is ex-premier Thaksin Shinawatra's youngest sister, has never been seen with a sullen expression during her campaign tour.
She has no complaints although her voice has gone hoarse from the constant talking during the campaign tour. Sometimes she had to eat inside her van and have a change of dress at petrol-station rest rooms.
When it comes to eloquence, she certainly is not as fluent as Democrat Party leader Abhisit Vejjajiva. She often speaks for five to 10 minutes on stage and touches on Pheu Thai's policy platforms instead of discussing them in detail. However, her ability to plead for sympathy is superb and she never fails to draw cheers from supporters.
She was seen attentively listening to the problems of people during her campaign tour. Some voters, who had a chance to talk to her in person, said they had begun to love her.
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