Polls open in Thailand's first post-coup election

BANGKOK, Thailand (CNN) -- Polls opened Sunday in Thailand's first national election after a military coup, with loyalists of deposed former Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra expected to capture the most votes, The Associated Press reported.

The balloting, which opened at 8 a.m. (0100 GMT), will end seven hours later and unofficial results are expected before midnight (1700 GMT) Sunday, AP reported.

The Election Commission has been barraged by more than 900 complaints of election fraud, mostly related to vote-buying. The night before elections is popularly called the "night of the howling dogs," as canvassers knock on doors to distribute last-minute cash-for-votes in rural areas, AP reported.

Since its transition from an absolute monarchy to a constitutional one 75 years ago, Thailand has seen its government overthrown by coups 18 times.

While dozens of political parties are competing, the race comes down to two fundamental choices: candidates backed by the army and its interim government, and those who support Thaksin, a 58-year-old telecommunications tycoon who owns the English Premier League Manchester City Football Club.

Thaksin's Thai Rak Thai (Thais Love Thais) party won two landslide victories before he was accused of corruption and deposed in a bloodless coup last September.

Military rulers banned Thaksin's party and changed the constitution, in part to weaken the power of the prime minister.

The generals promised to return Thailand to a civilian government, and they are delivering on it with Sunday's elections. The problem for them, however, is that they may be returning the country to Thaksin loyalists.

The party that is leading in the polls is openly pro-Thaksin. And its leader takes no issue with the fact that many consider him simply a stand-in for the deposed prime minister.

"What's wrong with that?" Samak Sundaravej of the People Power Party said. "Even by law it's not against. But nominee is a good worker."

Should his party win, Samak has vowed to return to the old constitution and bring Thaksin back from exile in London.

Samak, like Thaksin, has tapped into the kingdom's rural poor, many of whom feel left out of Thailand's rapid development.

"The rural majority have been awakened," said Thitinan Pongsudhirak, director of the Institute of Security and International Studies at Chulalongkorn University in Bangkok.

"This is the real silent majority, and they are not going back to sleep. They will vote for Thai Rak Thai again, under a different name this time: the People Power Party."

At last count, about 5,000 candidates from more than three dozen parties were vying for 480 seats in the parliament's lower house. In most cases, their names won't appear on the ballot; voters have to remember them by assigned numbers.

"For someone one who is going to vote with his own intention, it is going to be confusing," said James Chanpong, a Bangkok businessman. "But if he goes to the booth just to vote for the party he was told to vote [for], it is easy. He simply has to remember two to three numbers, that is all."

The only serious challenger to Thaksin loyalists is Abhisit Vejjajiva, the fresh-faced, Oxford-educated leader of the Democrat party, who enjoys support in the cities.

But polls show it is unlikely that any one party will garner enough votes to govern without forming coalitions with other smaller parties.

"I think I'm in a battle against all old corrupt leadership of the country, " Abhisit said. "Thaksin included."

Meanwhile, observers say that human rights have steadily eroded in the small southeast Asian kingdom, which is twice the size of Wisconsin. New York-based Human Rights Watch said that under Shinawatra, security forces operated with impunity and allegedly carried out thousands of extrajudicial executions as part of the government's crackdown on drugs.

Little improved after the military took over.

Martial law was imposed in mostly Thaksin stronghold provinces in the north and northeast, the advocacy group said. And a memo surfaced, approved by military leaders, that advocated the harassment and discrediting of People Power Party, the group said.

All of which poses one crucial question leading up to Sunday's elections: If the People Power Party wins, will the army allow Thaksin to return, or will Thailand be plunged into a fresh crisis with yet another coup? E-mail to a friend

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