Thais voters are getting tired of endless voting

By Joshua Kurlantzick

BANGKOK (AFP): Thai voters welcomed the cleaner politics last Saturday's re-election represents but are tiring of delays and frustrations associated with stamping out poll fraud, observers said.

"Thais appreciate the power the election commission has to bar cheating candidates, and many people want a clean senate," election analyst Sunai Phusak said.

"But they are getting tired of voting over and over, and may not have the courage to continually stand up to fraud," he said.

"So, unless there is courage on all levels -- district, personal, national -- it will be difficult to wipe misconduct out of Thai elections."

Weekend polls were a re-run of the March 4 first round senate election, where 78 of 200 senators-elect were disqualified for vote-buying in an unprecedented display of power by the election commission.

Corruption in the April 29 senate re-run would create the possibility that the election commission may have to call a third senate poll.

Thais backed the commission's decision to disqualify cheating senators-elect and call a re-run, and many want the commission to continue calling re-polls until there are no major allegations of vote fraud, said an editorial in the Nation daily.

Now politicians will "have to tread carefully," as "vote buying, clandestine or blatant, will surely cost them," since "voters are serious ... in getting the right democratic process on solid ground," the Nation said.

Thais believe it is "much better to face a delay" than to fill the Senate with "practitioners of old-style, vote-buying gutter politics."

Despite pundits' claims of voters' commitment to the democratic process, many people chose to ignore the vote-buying, preferring to simply have the election finished rather than continuing to fight corruption.

"Some people have let down their guard in the re-run, and don't take action when they see misconduct," said Sunai.

"They feel like enough change has been accomplished, and they want the commission to endorse the results, so that the senate can take shape."

The law requires all 200 senators to be confirmed by the commission before the chamber can convene.

Observers worry that a third senate election would spark little reaction and would dampen interest in future polls.

Turnout for last Saturday's re-run did not exceed 50 percent of eligible voters, said election officials. In the first round March 4 election, turnout reached seventy-two percent of eligible voters.

Evidence showed that poll fraud remained a problem in the election re-run. Obvious cheating including vote-buying was reported in the northeastern provinces, Somchai Srisuthiyakorn, secretary of election monitoring group Pollwatch Foundation, told AFP.

In central Suphan Buri province, 50 police supervised polling stations, and the election commission sent an investigating team to four provinces, including Bangkok, television reports said.

Election commission member Gothom Arya told local television that in Minburi, a Bangkok suburb, "there were reports of vote buying, and influential people controlling the polls."

Original senate polls were the first held under a new anti- corruption constitution introduced in an effort to clean up Thai politics.

Candidates were not allowed party financing and were prevented from doing much more than introducing themselves to voters.

Some observers, however, believed the strict electoral rules meant few voters knew anything about the candidate they voted for, making vote-buying more likely.

Eventually, the new senate will wield powers to examine legislation and impeach individual members of parliament, ministers or the government as a whole.