Thailand's People Power Party (PPP), taken over by followers of ousted prime minister Thaksin Shinawatra, will emerge from a Dec. 23 general election as the biggest party but short of a majority, an independent poll shows. The poll by the Suan Dusit Rajabhat University showed the PPP would win 180 of the 480 parliamentary seats at stake with the main rival, the Democrat Party, winning 160. It said 38.6 percent of 4,410 respondents favoured the PPP and 32.3 percent planned to vote for the Democrats, Thailand's oldest political party. The poll, released on Sunday, was in line with general expectations after Thaksin's Thai Rak Thai (Thais Love Thais) party was dissolved and most of its leaders banned from politics for five years for election fraud. The PPP and Democrats will battle to be the biggest party, which will be in pole position to form a weak coalition government under a new constitution designed to prevent one big party taking power.
The PPP, a fringe party taken over by Thaksin followers after Thai Rak Thai was dissolved in the wake of the September 2006 coup which deposed him, will benefit from the continuing support for Thaksin in the countryside. Although he has lived in exile in London since he was ousted, Thaksin appears to have lost none of his attraction in rural areas which swept him to two landslide election victories. An August referendum on the new constitution showed many people against it in areas where Thaksin was popular.
The Democrats, a mainly middle-class party, was expected to capture 22 of the 36 seats in Bangkok in December and the PPP 12, the poll showed. To form a government, the PPP and Democrats would need the support of the Chart Thai (Thai Nation), which the poll expects to win around 50 seats, or the Matchitma Thipataya (Middle Path Democracy) party, which is expected to win 45 seats. The support of tiny parties would also be crucial. All parties running in the poll have adopted populist policies similar to those of Thaksin, who offered farmers cheap loans and health care and development funds. [via Yahoo! Asia News]
Ed. With a coalition government being the most likely outcome of the election, the jockeying for cabinet positions will be the No 1 blood sport of Jan 2008. Stating the obvious I know, but coalitions are good at carving up the pie but not so good at leading the country with any clear focus. Politicians are too busy protecting their vested interests to worry about the big picture, the overall good of the country.
Sierra Tangos
- John's Back To The Living Party at 8.00pm, Tuesday Nov 13 @ U Too Bar (opposite Alcazar, Second Road)
- Paedophile Gary Glitter is set for a dramatic New Year return to Britain - and it's going to cost the UK tax payers £250,000 a year. The sniveling pervert is desperate to settle down abroad - but more than a dozen countries so far have told him to get lost. So he looks certain to come back to Britain after finishing a prison term in Vietnam for abusing two little girls. And under European laws, the ageing baldie will be given round-the-clock police protection against revenge attacks, a free home and up to 12 minders to guarantee his safety. Shockingly, UK taxpayers will have to foot the bill for Glitter's freeloading lifestyle, which experts reckon could run to more than £250,000. [via The People]
-
Steak Lao Keo Carabao restaurant opened at Tony’s Trade Center located at the South End of Pattaya Third Road, opposite Tony’s Gym, over the weekend. The venue is owned by a member of the famous Carabao Band and offers a full Thai food menu and delicious steaks and other western dishes. For more information on Steak Lao please call 038 488 204.
- Nuts Calendar 2008 - starring some of your favourite ladies.... Jana Defi, Michelle Marsh, Katie Downes, Sam Cooke, Sophie Howard, Lucy Pinder, Cara Brett, Kayleigh Pearson, Louise Porter
- Life inside an office firewall can be very restrictive for some employees. If you are working in a company that has imp osed a blanket ban on all websites citing security reasons, you can still keep in touch with your favorite blogs through email. Services like SendMeRSS or FeedBlitz will send you RSS feeds straight in your email Inbox – the moment there’s a new blog post, you can read it just like any other email message.
When a web page is inaccessible, the email message contains a link to some article on a website (say Forbes.com) but you cannot read the full story as access to that website is restricted at work. No worries as you can still read that article through email. Just send an email addressed to www@web2mail.com with the URL of the web page in the Subject field (e.g. www.cnn.com) and you’ll soon find a copy of that web page in your Inbox. A similar service is provided by www4mail@wm.ictp.trieste.it - it will also fetch websites for you through email though in this case, the site address should go in the body of the email message. [via Digital Inspiration]
- New Sudoku site launched, Sudoku Junction, with thousands of puzzles of varying degrees of difficulty
- A little boy and his father are walking down the street, and they see two dogs having sex. The little boy asks his father, "Daddy, what are they doing?" The father says, "Making a puppy." So they walk on and go home. A few days later, the little boy walks in on his parents having sex. The little boy says, "Daddy, what are you doing?" The father replies, "Making a baby." The little boy says, "Well, flip her over! I'd rather have a puppy."
- A woman takes a lover home during the day while her husband is at work. Her 9 year old son comes home unexpectedly, sees them and hides in the bedroom closet to watch. The woman's husband also comes home. She puts her Lover in the closet, not realizing that the little boy is in there already. The little boy says, "Dark in here." The man says, "Yes, it is." Boy - "I have a baseball." Man - "That's nice." Boy - "Want to buy it?" Man - "No, thanks." Boy - "My dad's outside." Man - "OK, how much?" Boy - "$250"
In the next few weeks, it happens again that the boy and the lover are in the closet together. Boy - "Dark in here." Man - "Yes, it is." Boy - "I have a baseball glove." The lover, remembering the last time, asks the boy, "How much?" Boy - "$750" Man - "Sold."
A few days later, the father says to the boy, "Grab your glove, let's go outside and have a game of catch. The boy says, "I can't, I sold my baseball and my glove." The father asks, "How much did you sell them for?" Boy -"$1,000" The father says, "That's terrible to overcharge your friends like that. That is way more than those two things cost. I'm going to take you to church and make you confess." They go to the church and the father makes the little boy sit in the confession booth and he closes the door. The boy says, "Dark in here." The priest says, "Don't start that shit again, you're in my closet now."
No comments:
Post a Comment