- WSJ.com Thaksin Keeps His Clout April 24, 2006
DOW JONES REPRINTS This copy is for your personal, non-commercial use only. To order presentation-ready copies for distribution to your colleagues, clients or customers, use the Order Reprints tool at the bottom of any article or visit: www.djreprints.com. See a sample reprint in PDF format. Order a reprint of this article now. Thaksin Keeps His Clout Former Thai Leader Has Grip on His Party And Sway in Senate By JAMES HOOKWAY April 24, 2006 BANGKOK, Thailand -- Thaksin Shinawatra is no longer Thailand's prime minister. But, as results from last week's Senate elections show, he has maintained his grip on another powerful position: leader of the country's strongest political party. Mr. Thaksin stepped aside as prime minister earlier this month after his Thai Rak Thai -- or Thais Love Thais -- party won just over half of the popular vote in the April 2 snap election for the lower house of Parliament that opposition parties boycotted. Mr. Thaksin had hoped for a much stronger showing to end months of street protests by opponents demanding his resignation for alleged corruption and other abuses of Mr. Thaksin, a wealthy businessman before entering politics, opted to delegate leadership duties to a deputy until a new Parliament is formed and a successor prime minister is appointed. But while initially exultant at Mr. Thaksin's apparent defeat, many of his opponents now realize that he still exerts considerable sway as leader of Thailand's largest political grouping. Indeed, ruling-party executives have vowed that Mr. Thaksin will return to power as prime minister within a year. Analysts say Mr. Thaksin's continuing political role could reignite mass protests -- which he hoped to end by stepping aside -- and might also renew fears that a political confrontation could derail Thailand's otherwise robust economy. An indication of Mr. Thaksin's enduring appeal has come in the results from Wednesday's Senate voting. Official vote results aren't available yet, though unofficial ones show that candidates closely linked to his party won more than half the 200 seats for the Senate, or upper house of Parliament. The nonpartisan upper house is supposed to be politically neutral. Under Thailand's political system, it is the Senate that appoints officials to the country's independent political watchdog bodies, including the National Counter-Corruption Commission and the Auditor-General's Office.
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The Senate can't initiate legislation, though in some cases it can block bills approved by the lower house. In reality, Mr. Thaksin's critics say, the Senate isn't as neutral as the authors of the country's constitution intended. "It is now impossible to have a system of checks and balances, because the majority of elected senators are under the control of Thais Loves Thais [party]," said Parnthep Pourpongpan, a leader of the People's Alliance for Democracy, which led the against rallies Mr. Thaksin. Opposition politicians satirize the new Senate as the "Chamber of Husbands and Wives." At least 18 incoming senators are spouses of Thais Love Thais lawmakers, while another 24 had children, siblings or other close relations in the ruling party, the Associated Press reported. Unofficial results of the Senate elections also show a continuing divide between rural areas that largely supported pro-Thaksin candidates, and the urban center of Bangkok -- the focal point for protests against Mr. Thaksin. The Nation newspaper in Bangkok, which is sharply critical of Mr. Thaksin, complained in an editorial that "the Senate, a supposed linchpin of checks and balances, will remain anything but." Thitinan Pongsudhirak, a political-science professor at Bangkok's Chulalongkorn University, contended that the new Senate will be hard-pressed to present itself as legitimate. Meanwhile, Mr. Thaksin's political allies are still struggling to avert a constitutional crisis. The opposition boycott of the April 2 election resulted in 39 of 500 seats in Parliament remaining unfilled. Thai electoral rules stipulate that a full complement of lawmakers is needed to convene Parliament and elect a prime minister. By law, Parliament should convene within 30 days of the April 2 poll. Yesterday, by-elections were held in the empty constituencies in a bid to fill those seats. But several will remain vacant as pro-Thaksin candidates again ran unopposed and failed to win sufficient votes to meet minimum requirements. Thai law says that an unopposed candidate must get the support of at least 20% of registered voters. That is difficult in parts of southern Thailand, where Mr. Thaksin and his supporters are deeply unpopular because of th...