Exercising their ballot: People turn up to cast their vote during advance voting ahead of the March 24 general election at Matthayom Ban Bang Kapi School in Bang Kapi district.
Long-awaited poll
1. After being put off six times when it was first promised by junta leader Prime Minister Prayut Chan-o-cha, the much awaited general election was finally held on March 24 under a complex new electoral system with 500 seats up for grabs.
The poll was held under a new rule in which a single ballot was used and votes cast for constituency candidates were used to calculate party-list seats to be distributed among qualified parties.
Under the new regulation, if the number of constituency seats won by a party exceeded the estimated share of overall House seats allowed, it would not get party-list seats.
The election rules put forth by the Constitution Drafting Committee under an organic law on the election of MPs were heavily criticised and did exactly what political observers said they would — favour medium-sized and small parties.
It turned out that 27 political parties won, with 13 micro parties receiving one party-list seat each.
While the lead opposition Pheu Thai Party managed to capture the lion’s share of seats — 136 in total — political observers said it was far fewer than the 200 House seats it was expected to win.
The Palang Pracharath Party (PPRP), which nominated Gen Prayut as its prime ministerial candidate, did better than expected, winning 117 seats from the constituency and party-list systems.
The party was expected to capture only around 60 to 80 seats.
New alliance: Key members of parties meet Palang Pracharath Party heavyweights to confirm they will form part of the coalition government in early June.
The poll served up some surprises, with the Future Forward Party springing the biggest shock by grabbing 81 seats mostly from the party-list system. This new outfit was expected to win no more than 30 to 40 seats.
The Democrat Party was the biggest loser. It was expected to retain 100 seats, yet it captured no more than 53, none of which were in Bangkok, its political stronghold. Abhisit Vejjajiva stepped down as party leader after the shocking defeat.
A few days after the poll, the Pheu Thai announced it was joining up with allies to form a coalition government with a total of 255 seats — a move that proved to be premature.
A coalition of 19 parties
2.A hundred and eight days after the general election, PPRP eventually formed a razor-thin coalition government with 254 seats and 19 political parties under its wing.
The PPRP faced some tough demands from its potential partners, including the 11 small parties that were the first to back the PPRP-led alliance. The Democrat and Bhumjaithai parties teamed up as a “political duo” to use their combined 103 MPs in a move to increase their bargaining power for coveted cabinet seats.
The Democrat Party drove a hard bargain by putting forward its patriarch, veteran politician Chuan Leekpai, for the House Speaker’s post — a seat usually held by a core coalition party.
Backed by PPRP deputy leader and list-MP Nataphol Teepsuwan, Mr Chuan defeated Pheu Thai’s Sompong Amornwiwat in a 258-235 vote, with one abstention. To political observers, this move signalled the deal to form a PPRP-led coalition had been sealed.
After the appointment of the chief of the legislative branch came the prime ministerial vote, which was a contest between PPRP’s Gen Prayut and Future Forward Party (FFP) leader Thanathorn Juangroongruangkit.
However, Gen Prayut was a shoo-in with the support of 250 appointed senators, winning 500 votes in the joint House-Senate voting session. Mr Thanathorn only got 244 votes with Mr Chuan, Senate Speaker Pornpetch Wichitcholachai, and Bhumjaithai MP for Si Sa Ket Siripong Angkasakulkiat abstaining.
Mr Siripong claimed he abstained because he wanted to keep his campaign promise that he would back party leader Anutin Charnvirakul for the post.
Ahead of the vote, Democrat leader Abhisit Vejjajiva stepped down as party list-MP.
Clearly he couldn’t bring himself to vote for Gen Prayut to remain as PM after failing to talk his party out of joining the PPRP-led alliance and working instead as an independent opposition party.
Army chief’s ‘talk show’
3.It is not often that people witness the spectacle of an army chief wielding a microphone on stage to lash out at political characters accused of undermining national security.
Airing views: Army chief Apirat Kongsompong takes to the podium to speak on threats to national security on Oct 11.
On Oct 11, Army commander-in-chief Apirat Kongsompong held the audience rapt when he addressed a lecture attended by some 500 people from public and state sectors.
The subject of the lecture was loosely translated as “Our Land in the Contest of National Security”.
For about an hour, Gen Apirat analysed the state of police and took aim at certain politicians in the so-called “pro-democracy” camp.
The hawkish army chief spoke at length of a new national threat that has manifested in the form of “hybrid warfare”, which apparently combines both conventional and non-conventional warfare strategies.
Non-conventional war tactics involves the employment of an irregular force such as the radicals who were behind random bombings in Bangkok over the past few years.
The conventional strategy, meanwhile, pertains to the alleged propaganda devised by an older generation of people, most in their early 70s, who cling to communism and anti-monarchist ideals.
Gen Apirat insisted this threat was masterminded by foreign-educated elements and academics to drive propagandist campaigns and fake news through social media to further their cause and win support from people, especially the young.
The army commander also lambasted an academic for suggesting that the charter’s Section 1, which stipulates that Thailand is one indivisible kingdom, be amended.
The suggestion was made at a public discussion on changes to the constitution in Pattani on Oct 4, with some opposition leaders attending.
Thanathorn ejected
4. FFP leader Thanathorn was stripped of his MP status by the Constitutional Court on Nov 20 in relation to his controversial shareholding in a media organisation.
However, this may not be the end of his predicament.
Thrown out: Future Forward Party leader Thanathorn Juangroongruangkit bows as he is asked to leave the first parliament meeting at the TOT auditorium on May 25 due to the Constitutional Court’s suspension of his MP status. The court order stemmed from a media shareholding case against him.
Mr Thanathorn had been dogged by the V-Luck media shareholding saga soon after he was first suspended as MP by the Constitutional Court.
The election law prohibits MP candidates from owning shares in media companies, and Mr Thanathorn reportedly held 675,000 shares in V-Luck Media Co when the FFP submitted the names of its party-list MP candidates to the Election Commission on Feb 6.
EC secretary-general Pol Col Jarungvith Phumma said Mr Thanathorn now stands accused of violating Section 151 of the law on the election of MPs.
The section stipulates that those who apply for MP status despite knowing full well that they do not meet qualification requirements can face a jail term of up to 10 years, a fine of between 20,000 and 200,000 baht, and also may have their voting rights suspended for 20 years.
Pol Col Jarungvith said an inquiry committee investigating the case is expected to include the court’s ruling in its consideration because the ruling states says Mr Thanathorn was not qualified to apply as an election candidate.
While considering the case, the Constitutional Court refused to look at any documents, including those showing the shares had been transferred, which were supplied by Mr Thanathorn in his defence.
The court reasoned that the documents were issued by V-Luck Media and none of them were official documents recorded by the Business Development Department to prove the share transfer.
Mr Thanathorn, dubbed as the brightest rising star of politics, claimed the EC rushed the media shareholding case before the EC sub-committee finished its probe.
He then filed a lawsuit against all seven election commissioners at the Criminal Court for Corruption and Misconduct Cases, only to see it being thrown out with the court saying the commissioners had full authority to forward the share-holding case to the Constitutional Court.
Party’s early death
5.In March, the country was kept in suspense over the Constitutional Court’s ruling on the fate of the Thai Raksa Chart Party, which found itself mired in problems for nominating Princess Ubolratana as its prime ministerial candidate.
The moment of truth came on March 7, when the court voted unanimously to dissolve the party. Thai Raksa Chart was believed to have close ties with Pheu Thai Party, which was thought to be under former PM Thaksin Shinawatra’s wing.
The court also voted 6:3 to ban Thai Raksa Chart’s 14 executives from politics for 10 years.
The party execs are also banned from setting up parties or becoming executives of other parties for 10 years.
Final verdict: Executives of the Thai Raksa Chart Party arrive at the Constitutional Court which dissolved the party in March.
Thai Raksa Chart has suffered the same fate as Thaksin’s Thai Rak Thai Party, which was dissolved in 2007 by a constitutional tribunal for violating an electoral law.
Its 111 executives subsequently had their political rights revoked for five years.
The People Power Party, said to be Thai Rak Thai’s reincarnation, was also disbanded by the Constitutional Court, and its 37 executive banned for five years.
On Feb 14, the Constitutional Court accepted a petition from the EC in relation to Thai Raksa Chart’s nomination of Princess Ubolratana as a prime ministerial candidate.
His Majesty the King then commanded that members of the royal family are above politics and cannot hold political positions.
In its defence, Thai Raksa Chart said it had received the princess’s consent and that there were no laws barring her from becoming a prime minister as she has relinquished all her royal titles.
HALIFAX – Nova Scotia Premier Tim Houston says it’s “disgraceful and demeaning” that a Halifax-area school would request that service members not wear military uniforms to its Remembrance Day ceremony.
Houston’s comments were part of a chorus of criticism levelled at the school — Sackville Heights Elementary — whose administration decided to back away from the plan after the outcry.
A November newsletter from the school in Middle Sackville, N.S., invited Armed Forces members to attend its ceremony but asked that all attendees arrive in civilian attire to “maintain a welcoming environment for all.”
Houston, who is currently running for re-election, accused the school’s leaders of “disgracing themselves while demeaning the people who protect our country” in a post on the social media platform X Thursday night.
“If the people behind this decision had a shred of the courage that our veterans have, this cowardly and insulting idea would have been rejected immediately,” Houston’s post read. There were also several calls for resignations within the school’s administration attached to Houston’s post.
In an email to families Thursday night, the school’s principal, Rachael Webster, apologized and welcomed military family members to attend “in the attire that makes them most comfortable.”
“I recognize this request has caused harm and I am deeply sorry,” Webster’s email read, adding later that the school has the “utmost respect for what the uniform represents.”
Webster said the initial request was out of concern for some students who come from countries experiencing conflict and who she said expressed discomfort with images of war, including military uniforms.
Her email said any students who have concerns about seeing Armed Forces members in uniform can be accommodated in a way that makes them feel safe, but she provided no further details in the message.
Webster did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
At a news conference Friday, Houston said he’s glad the initial request was reversed but said he is still concerned.
“I can’t actually fathom how a decision like that was made,” Houston told reporters Friday, adding that he grew up moving between military bases around the country while his father was in the Armed Forces.
“My story of growing up in a military family is not unique in our province. The tradition of service is something so many of us share,” he said.
“Saying ‘lest we forget’ is a solemn promise to the fallen. It’s our commitment to those that continue to serve and our commitment that we will pass on our respects to the next generation.”
Liberal Leader Zach Churchill also said he’s happy with the school’s decision to allow uniformed Armed Forces members to attend the ceremony, but he said he didn’t think it was fair to question the intentions of those behind the original decision.
“We need to have them (uniforms) on display at Remembrance Day,” he said. “Not only are we celebrating (veterans) … we’re also commemorating our dead who gave the greatest sacrifice for our country and for the freedoms we have.”
NDP Leader Claudia Chender said that while Remembrance Day is an important occasion to honour veterans and current service members’ sacrifices, she said she hopes Houston wasn’t taking advantage of the decision to “play politics with this solemn occasion for his own political gain.”
“I hope Tim Houston reached out to the principal of the school before making a public statement,” she said in a statement.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Nov. 8, 2024.
REGINA – Saskatchewan Opposition NDP Leader Carla Beck says she wants to prove to residents her party is the government in waiting as she heads into the incoming legislative session.
Beck held her first caucus meeting with 27 members, nearly double than what she had before the Oct. 28 election but short of the 31 required to form a majority in the 61-seat legislature.
She says her priorities will be health care and cost-of-living issues.
Beck says people need affordability help right now and will press Premier Scott Moe’s Saskatchewan Party government to cut the gas tax and the provincial sales tax on children’s clothing and some grocery items.
Beck’s NDP is Saskatchewan’s largest Opposition in nearly two decades after sweeping Regina and winning all but one seat in Saskatoon.
The Saskatchewan Party won 34 seats, retaining its hold on all of the rural ridings and smaller cities.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Nov. 8, 2024.
HALIFAX – Nova Scotia‘s growing population was the subject of debate on Day 12 of the provincial election campaign, with Liberal Leader Zach Churchill arguing immigration levels must be reduced until the province can provide enough housing and health-care services.
Churchill said Thursday a plan by the incumbent Progressive Conservatives to double the province’s population to two million people by the year 2060 is unrealistic and unsustainable.
“That’s a big leap and it’s making life harder for people who live here, (including ) young people looking for a place to live and seniors looking to downsize,” he told a news conference at his campaign headquarters in Halifax.
Anticipating that his call for less immigration might provoke protests from the immigrant community, Churchill was careful to note that he is among the third generation of a family that moved to Nova Scotia from Lebanon.
“I know the value of immigration, the importance of it to our province. We have been built on the backs of an immigrant population. But we just need to do it in a responsible way.”
The Liberal leader said Tim Houston’s Tories, who are seeking a second term in office, have made a mistake by exceeding immigration targets set by the province’s Department of Labour and Immigration. Churchill said a Liberal government would abide by the department’s targets.
In the most recent fiscal year, the government welcomed almost 12,000 immigrants through its nominee program, exceeding the department’s limit by more than 4,000, he said. The numbers aren’t huge, but the increase won’t help ease the province’s shortages in housing and doctors, and the increased strain on its infrastructure, including roads, schools and cellphone networks, Churchill said.
“(The Immigration Department) has done the hard work on this,” he said. “They know where the labour gaps are, and they know what growth is sustainable.”
In response, Houston said his commitment to double the population was a “stretch goal.” And he said the province had long struggled with a declining population before that trend was recently reversed.
“The only immigration that can come into this province at this time is if they are a skilled trade worker or a health-care worker,” Houston said. “The population has grown by two per cent a year, actually quite similar growth to what we experienced under the Liberal government before us.”
Still, Houston said he’s heard Nova Scotians’ concerns about population growth, and he then pivoted to criticize Prime Minister Justin Trudeau for trying to send 6,000 asylum seekers to Nova Scotia, an assertion the federal government has denied.
Churchill said Houston’s claim about asylum seekers was shameful.
“It’s smoke and mirrors,” the Liberal leader said. “He is overshooting his own department’s numbers for sustainable population growth and yet he is trying to blame this on asylum seekers … who aren’t even here.”
In September, federal Immigration Minister Marc Miller said there is no plan to send any asylum seekers to the province without compensation or the consent of the premier. He said the 6,000 number was an “aspirational” figure based on models that reflect each province’s population.
In Halifax, NDP Leader Claudia Chender said it’s clear Nova Scotia needs more doctors, nurses and skilled trades people.
“Immigration has been and always will be a part of the Nova Scotia story, but we need to build as we grow,” Chender said. “This is why we have been pushing the Houston government to build more affordable housing.”
Chender was in a Halifax cafe on Thursday when she promised her party would remove the province’s portion of the harmonized sales tax from all grocery, cellphone and internet bills if elected to govern on Nov. 26. The tax would also be removed from the sale and installation of heat pumps.
“Our focus is on helping people to afford their lives,” Chender told reporters. “We know there are certain things that you can’t live without: food, internet and a phone …. So we know this will have the single biggest impact.”
The party estimates the measure would save the average Nova Scotia family about $1,300 a year.
“That’s a lot more than a one or two per cent HST cut,” Chender said, referring to the Progressive Conservative pledge to reduce the tax by one percentage point and the Liberal promise to trim it by two percentage points.
Elsewhere on the campaign trail, Houston announced that a Progressive Conservative government would make parking free at all Nova Scotia hospitals and health-care centres. The promise was also made by the Liberals in their election platform released Monday.
“Free parking may not seem like a big deal to some, but … the parking, especially for people working at the facilities, can add up to hundreds of dollars,” the premier told a news conference at his campaign headquarters in Halifax.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Nov. 7, 2024.
