Post coup election date set

[skadistic]

The only way you could ask the question you did was if you watched a certain Fox News report given on the subject that was completely and wholly fabricated.

So are you saying you can't buy young girls in Thialand? Because you can. And in many other SE asian nations.

 

[Pasi Nurminen]

Pasi, is there any news about who's going to stand, or how "free and fair" the elections are going to be? Still, if it's not for nine months, then maybe no-one is ready for that sort of thing yet ... except you said that the military had previously said there'd be elections by the end of the year. So December ... holding on to power until the last minute?

I'm torn. On the one hand, the military probably does not want to govern, at least not for too long because that will only lead to mass demonstrations and unrest, and we all know how Asian military governments like to deal with civil unrest. That would lead to universal condemnation of the government, political and economic isolation, and threaten the country's prospects of becoming a regional power. On the other hand, if the 'wrong' candidate gets elected in December, I wouldn't put it past the military junta to declare election fraud or whatnot. With Thaksin's Thai Rak Thai party destroyed, who can challenge the Democratic Party? They at last have a chance to be relevant again.

Don't kid yourself though: Thailand has never really had a democracy. Since the 1932 constitution, they've had 17 coups IIRC, and even though Thaksin was democratically elected, as soon as he took office he began to erode the checks and balances set up by the most recent constitution. I expect more of the same.