Coss Posted March 23, 2019 Report Share Posted March 23, 2019 Thailand's king made an unexpected call for "security" and "happiness" on the eve of the first election since a 2014 army coup, but made no mention of a poll critics say has been engineered to keep the military in power. King Maha Vajiralongkorn did not refer to any of the sides in Sunday's election. However, his message less than 12 hours before voting booths were to open was a startling departure from the approach of his late father, who in his latter years kept a distance between the monarchy and politics. "The king is concerned about the country's security and the feelings and happiness of the people, so the king wants to send his moral support and a reminder for all to use it to bring about unity, security of the country and happiness of the people," said a palace statement late on Saturday... https://www.yahoo.com/news/election-observers-face-limitations-thai-poll-104011107.html Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
khunsanuk Posted March 24, 2019 Report Share Posted March 24, 2019 Hi, The poll is mostly a joke, I think. My guess is that whichever party wins, Prayuth will still get 'elected' PM. He basically only needs 1/4 of the votes. Marcel Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Coss Posted March 24, 2019 Author Report Share Posted March 24, 2019 Yes, my uninformed take on these elections is that Thaksin has/had four or more parties, hoping to coalesce them once voting is over, but some were disallowed and Prayuth has got the systems 'adjusted' in his favour. Are there any non partisan, amongst us, who could offer an opinion on whether or not Thai life, is better under Prayuth or Thaksin ? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
panadolsandwich Posted March 25, 2019 Report Share Posted March 25, 2019 On the face of it, the call for security and happiness sounds right and proper. But you can't legislate happiness. You *can* ramp up security. Thankfully the Thai people are fairly vocal about their rights. Let's just hope security doesn't mean what we all think it means. Perhaps I'm optimistic, but I respectfully expect the Thai King to exert a calming influence and follow his father's example of staying out of politics, after all it's beneath his dignity. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
baa99 Posted March 26, 2019 Report Share Posted March 26, 2019 Life is better for the generals! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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