Thai opposition wins landslide election victory

Less than fourteen months after the Thai military crushed mass protests in the centre of Bangkok by red-shirted supporters of exiled prime minister Thaksin Shinawatra, a political party lead by his sister has won a landslide election victory.

With more than 90 per cent of the votes counted, the Pheu Thai party headed by Yingluck Shianwatra, a political neophyte who took over first her brother’s business empire and then his political machine, looked set to win an outright majority, leading in 261 seats out of 500. The ruling Democrat Party of Prime Minister Abhisit Vejjajiva was a distant second, leading in 162 seats.
“The outcome is clear - Pheu Thai has won the election and the Democrats are defeated,” a wan-looking Mr. Abhisit told supporters in a concession speech on the steps of his party’s headquarters in downtown Bangkok.

A short drive away at the Pheu Thai headquarters, the scene was jubilant, with supporters chanting “Prime Minister Yingluck” and setting off fireworks.

“I’m very happy. I think things will change,” said Tathanee Mahamed, a 33-year-old maid wearing a red headscarf and dancing in front of a television set up on the street. Like many red shirt supporters, the 33-year-old hails from northeastern Thailand and makes a modest salary working as a maid in Bangkok.

The election marked the fourth consecutive election in which parties led by or affiliated with Mr. Thaksin won the largest share of the vote. Mr. Thaksin – who remains wildly popular among the country’s rural poor, particularly in the north and the northeast of the country – himself won back-to-back landslides in 2001 and 2005 before being deposed in a 2006 coup.

In the eyes of many, Sunday’s election was a referendum on the military’s decision to seize power, and the wide influence it has wielded since that time. Many of the people dancing outside the Pheu Thai headquarters had taken part in the rolling protests that paralyzed the commercial heart of Bangkok for two months last year, prompting a live-ammunition military crackdown that left at least 91 people dead.

While her party ran under the slogan “Thaksin thinks, Pheu Thai does,” Ms. Yingluck used her first press conference as prime minister-elect to again assert that she is more than her brother’s proxy. “Thai people selected first myself, second Pheu Thai policy, third my management team. People did not select me only because my last name is Shinawatra,” the telegenic 44-year-old said.