Abhisit on elections
The Nation (20 July 2009: “Abhisit stands strong”) has an interview with Prime Minister Abhisit Vejjajiva on the 6-month anniversary of his tenure and his Democrat Party-led government.
Interestingly, Abhisit confirms that he believes “the country is not ready for an early election.” No surprise there as the Democrats need to stay in power and keep the coalition together as long as possible as they know that they risk losing an election to pro-Thaksin Shinawatra forces.
Of course, Abhisit didn’t say it in those words. What he claimed was that “the existing national divide would stop a truly democratic election from taking place because politicians could not visit hostile constituencies. This is why he is reluctant to dissolve the House…”. Somewhat disingenuously, Abhisit added, “I won’t cling to power or try to stay until the end of my term.”
In fact, according to the Nation, “Abhisit showed no signs of giving up any time soon, as he hit back at critics comparing his performance to that of fugitive former premier Thaksin Shinawatra.” Abhisit said: “Give me another two or three years, and I assure you, I will deliver more than Thaksin.” Haunted by the electoral support pro-Thaksin parties have, Abhisit asked: “If Thaksin did indeed solve the poverty problem, why do we still have so many poor people?” Readers might want correct us, but we don’t believe Thaksin actually claimed to have solved poverty.
As part of the Democrat’s anti-poverty strategy, the Bangkok Post (20 July 2009: “Minimum wage frozen”) “The National Wage Committee on Monday resolved not to increase the minimum labour wage this year…”.
Reinforcing his position on elections, Abhisit added: “All I want to say is I don’t want to see an election while some undemocratic political groups continue obstructing real [free and fair] competition. So, I won’t hold an election as long as they still block [us] from entering certain areas.”
Abhisit is blaming the red shirts. PPT assumes he is not referring to the previous situation where PPP ministers couldn’t visit many Democrat Party constituencies prior to December 2008.
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