Volunteers rally to safeguard polls

General News - Sunday December 16, 2007

RACE TO PARLIAMENT

Volunteers rally to safeguard polls

Locals are helping to fight election fraud

By Wassayos Ngamkham

More than 200 people in tambon Charoenpon in Banphot Phisai district have volunteered to campaign to encourage people to vote and uncover poll fraud in the run-up to the general election next Sunday. Manit Sukki, chief of the Charoenpon tambon administration organisation, said volunteers have been deployed at roadblocks set up on roads entering the sub-district.

The volunteers will try to stop people they suspect of being canvassers trying to infiltrate and buy votes in their community. They are also going from door to door encouraging villagers to vote.

''We report our operations to the district chief every day. Recently the district has sent police officers to work with us. They are already equipped with security plans, which makes our work much easier,'' said Mr Manit.

Another 240 volunteers have also been operating undercover in each village in tambon Charoenpon. Each volunteer is assigned to take care of a group of 12-13 people in each village.

In addition to convincing locals to go to vote, their job involves getting information on possible poll fraud in villages and bringing it to the attention of officials in the district. Their identities are kept secret for safety reasons.

With these measures in place, Mr Manit is confident the election in the sub-district with an electorate of 4,545 will be free of fraud.

Satawat Saenmuk, the Banphot Phisai district chief, applauded the sub-district's initiative and has told other communities to take a leaf out of its book.

As a reward, 5,000 baht will be awarded to sub-districts where poll fraud is kept to zero and the runners-up, with minimal cases, will get 3,000 baht, the district chief added.

On the election campaign front, some observers have predicted the People Power party, comprised mostly of former Thai Rak Thai (TRT) members, could be brought to its knees in Nakhon Sawan.

Although the former TRT party won seven seats in the province at the previous election, its former members now running under People Power party are unlikely to repeat that success, they say.

This is because the former TRT MPs for Nakhon Sawan have left the PPP and are now candidates for other parties.

Paisarn Sansorawisut, a political scientist at Rajabhat Nakhon Sawan University, said voters in the province usually support an individual rather than a political party.

''Former Thai Rak Thai MPs who are now candidates running under the banners of other parties, not the PPP, have established themselves firmly in the province, making it difficult for PPP candidates to squeeze in,'' said Mr Paisarn.

He said voters in the province can be categorised into three groups. The first group will vote for candidates they are familiar with. They do not care what party the candidate belongs to.

The second will support candidates who can afford to pay them. The last group consists of undecided voters who could provide a swing vote in the election.

''Those undecided voters may favour the Chart Thai party. Democrat candidates rarely appear in the province. Their recent campaigns are too late and do not help,'' said Mr Paisarn, adding that PPP leader Samak Sundaravej was also a no-show in the province.

Mr Samak may be aware that PPP candidates running for election in Nakhon Sawan were no match for the veteran candidates there.

Thanarat Wichianrat, a PPP candidate in the first constituency, admitted he faces a tough battle against Pinyo Nirote, a veteran MP for Nakhon Sawan who has switched from Thai Rak Thai to the Ruam Jai Thai Chart Pattana party.

Bangkok Post