Goodspeed Analysis: New tactics from the Thai Red Shirts
Christophe Archambault/Agence France-Presse
Head of the Red Shirts, Thida Thavornseth
Jun 18, 2011 – 9:00 AM ET | Last Updated: Jun 18, 2011 3:05 PM ET
Thida Thavornseth, the 66-year-old retired microbiologist who leads Thailand's United Front for Democracy Against Dictatorship, more commonly known as the "Red Shirts," plans to train an army of 100,000 election volunteers to guarantee the honesty of the July 3 election.
"We want everything to be OK, we want everything to be clear," she says. "It is important that Thai society have a good election. We are going to check everything, for every party, to be sure there is no corruption."
A year ago, the Red Shirts — a loose coalition of leftists, rural protest groups, pro-democracy activists, anti-monarchists and supporters of former prime minister Thaksin Shinawatra — took to the streets to demand national elections.
They occupied downtown Bangkok for nearly nine weeks in a protest that resulted in the worst violence Thailand had seen in decades.
Now, Ms. Thida aims to transform the organization's image by focusing on prevention and fielding poll monitors.
Instead of confrontation, she wants the Red Shirts to guarantee the fairness of the election by helping "to solve problems."
"We want the will and the voice of the people to come out."
Unspoken is the fear much may be done to manipulate the vote. For one thing, Red Shirt election monitors say, the government has printed 53.5 million ballots even though there are only 47.3 million voters.
Having so many extra ballots might encourage cheating, they worry.
Then there's a problem with preliminary versions of the ballot, pictured below.
The leading opposition party, the pro-Thaksin Pheu Thai party, a key Red Shirts' ally, has the No. 1 position on the list of 40 competing parties, but a misprint has made its logo so small, it is virtually invisible.
Ms. Thida fears older voters and semi-literate farmers may be unable to use the ballot properly and may inadvertently spoil their vote by placing their X in the wrong spot.
National Post
Posted in: Posted, World Tags: Goodspeed Analysis, Red Shirts, Thailand, Thida Thavornseth
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