Police told to curb poll violence

Police told to curb poll violence

BANGKOK (Reuter): Thailand's caretaker prime minister, Banharn Silpa-archa, has ordered police to step up efforts to halt poll violence after a spate of shootings ahead of the Nov. 17 election, police said yesterday.

A political activist for the Democrat party was shot dead in Phichit province north of Bangkok on Saturday, while another party worker was injured in an attack in Samut Sakorn province.

Unidentified gunmen also fired on the house of the campaign manager for the Solidarity Party in Nakhon Phathom province on Saturday night, police said. No one was injured in the attack.

A total of six political workers, mostly from the opposition parties, have been shot dead since Wednesday, police said. Seventeen people have been attacked by unidentified gunmen, seven of them killed, since campaigning began on Sept. 27.

Campaigner workers are usually the prime targets for gunmen rather than candidates, police said. The workers are usually better known and more influential locally than the politicians.