Enthusiastic voters will head to poll stations nationwide tomorrow to choose chiefs and members of tambon administration organisations (TAO) after an almost eight-year political gap.
A fraught year in politics
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published : 30 Dec 2020 at 11:02
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It is often said that Thailand resolves around political events. Here are the five most dynamic and attention-grabbing stories the youth-led, anti-government protests, the Future Forward Party’s spectacular fall, Gen Prayut Chan-o-cha surviving the Constitutional Court’s rulings that threatened to deliver the death warrant on his premiership, the Provincial Administrative Organisation (PAO) elections held for the first time in six years and the internal turbulence experienced by the main opposition Pheu Thai Party which have left their mark this year.
1. Anti-government protests
Anti-government protesters, most of whom were students, fill Ngam Wong Wan and Phahon Yothin roads at Kasetsart intersection in Bangkok on Oct 19. (Photo by Varuth Hirunyatheb)
27 Voters cast their ballots in the Provincial Administration Organisation election in Songkhla on Sunday. (Photo by Nutthawat Wicheanbut)
Last Sunday, Thailand had a long-overdue election of the chairs and council members of all Provincial Administration Organisations (PAO). Are these elections really meaningful?
Following the 2014 coup, the National Council for Peace and Order (NCPO), under then-army chief Gen Prayut Chan-o-cha upended a foundation of Thai democracy by issuing an order to suspend local elections. The politically powerful junta then began to co-opt all locally elected politicians and local government officials to become centrally appointed representatives of the central government.
This process began with NCPO s Order Number 1/2557, in which one prescribed role of the locally elected leaders was to become partners of the military junta in restoring peace and order to the country. This made them complicit in undermining local government
Local polls may have big impact
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Editorial Bangkok Post editorial column
published : 20 Dec 2020 at 04:00
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Today s elections for Provincial Administration Organisations in the 76 provinces outside of Bangkok are the first local polls to take place since the 2014 coup and will be seen by many as a barometer of the mood inside a nation gripped by political unrest and economic downturn.
Right after the coup, Gen Prayut Chan-o-cha, then head of the National Council for Peace and Order, invoked Section 44, banning all political activities. In effect, it put all 98,940 local administrators into dormancy. It s said that the Palang Pracharath-led coalition government deliberately delayed local elections because it s unsure if it would emerge a big winner. Unfavourable results despite having control over the political mechanism would be a loss of face for national leaders.
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