Thaksin heads for historic second term

BANGKOK - Thais went to the polls yesterday in a general election expected to hand telecoms tycoon-turned Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra another four-year term in a historic second successive landslide.

One of the country's richest men, who swept to power in 2001 on a populist platform of free health care and rural handouts, Thaksin is already the only elected Prime Minister in Thailand's coup-prone history to finish a full term in office.

He is now set to establish sole grip on power in a country previously accustomed only to coalition government.

Opinion polls suggest his Thai Rak Thai party will win as many as 350 out of the 500 seats in Parliament, comfortably insulating it from any political censure.

The first indications of results were expected from exit polls this morning.

Results from across the Southeast Asian nation will trickle in to the Election Commission, which expects to have a final tally by 11am (5pm NZT) today.

The all-pervading influence of former police colonel Thaksin, who looks unassailable while the economy continues to perform well, has prompted critics and civil rights workers to see him increasingly as a dictator - a charge he dismisses out of hand.

"Where in the world is a single-party Government called a dictatorship? What's wrong with it when people have faith in me?" he told a rally marking the climax of his campaign.

Looking relaxed and confident, Thaksin drove to his local polling station before telling reporters Thailand's 63 million people would enjoy strong and purposeful leadership in his next term.

"It will be much better because we have strategies, we have plans and we will push them forward," he said.

With a long history of vote buying in Thailand, election eve is popularly known as the "Night of the Howling Dogs", when campaigners make door-to-door calls with last-minute inducements.

But in a modern twist to an age-old tradition, the Election Commission said anyone found photographing their ballot with a camera phone - to prove allegiance to their political paymaster - would be arrested.

"This is a petty crime, for which they can face up to 10 days in jail or a 500 baht ($18) fine," commission spokesman Ekachai Warunprapa told a Bangkok radio station.

Democrat and Opposition leader Banyat Bantadtan, casting his vote in his southern home town of Surat Thani, tried to keep his spirits up despite predictions his party's total seats would fall from 128 to as little as 101.

"Judging from the fierce race this time, I think we are having the most fraud attempts in this election," he told Channel 9 television.

Turnout is expected at around 70 per cent, roughly in line with 2001. Small queues built up at some Bangkok polling stations only minutes after they opened.

In Ban Namkhem, a southwestern fishing village levelled by the December 26 tsunami, hundreds of voters hitched rides on Army trucks or squeezed into tiny boats to cast their ballot amid the rubble of what was once their homes.

"There were 3000 people registered here, but we don't know how many will come today because we've no idea how many are dead or missing," said 38-year-old fisherman Praiyun Jongkraijak, who lost his parents, home and boat in the disaster.

In the Muslim south, where more than 500 people have died in months of unrest, officials said 10,000 troops would be deployed.

- REUTERS