Voters are going to the polls under heavy security in an election that could push Thailand deeper into political turmoil and leave the winner paralysed for months by street protests.
The risk of bloodshed at the ballot on Sunday remains high, a day after seven people were wounded by shooting and explosions during a standoff between supporters and opponents of Yingluck Shinawatra, the prime minister, in a north Bangkok stronghold of her Puea Thai Party.
As polls opened in Bangkok’s Beungkum district, Yingluck cast her ballot under heavy police presence. Poliing has been called off in some districts in the capital after anti-government protesters blocked roads, preventing voters from entering polling stations.
The main opposition Democrat Party is boycotting the poll and the commission has already voiced concerns that it would result in too few legitimately elected MPs to form a parliamentary quorum.
The usual campaign billboards, glossy posters and pre-election buzz have been notably absent this time, as will be millions of voters fearful of poll violence or bent on rejecting a ballot bound to re-elect the political juggernaut controlled by Yingluck’s billionaire brother, Thaksin Shinawatra.
Thaksin, 64, is loved and loathed in Thailand, but his parties have won every poll since 2001. His opponents say he is a corrupt crony capitalist who rules by proxy from self-exile in Dubai.
The latest round of unrest in the eight-year political conflict erupted in November and underscored Thaksin’s central role in the intractable struggle, both as hero and villain.
Yingluck was largely tolerated by Thaksin’s opponents but her party miscalculated when it tried to introduce a blanket amnesty that would have nullified a corruption conviction against Thaksin and allowed him to return home.
With no quorum to re-elect a prime minister, it looks likely that Yingluck could be a caretaker premier for months.
Even with a fresh mandate, a stalemate is almost certain, giving her opponents more time to intensify their campaign against her and for legal challenges to be lodged.
Many Thais see history repeating after a cycle of elections, protests and military or judicial interventions that have polarised the country and angered Thaksin’s Red Shirt supporters, who held crippling blockades in 2010 and have pledged to defend his sister from any overthrow attempt.
Thailand’s military has remained neutral so far, but the judiciary has taken on an unusually large number of cases in the past two months in response to complaints against Yingluck and Puea Thai that could result in the party’s dissolution and lengthy bans for its top politicians.
There is also a chance the election could be annulled, as it was in 2006, over a technicality. The Election Commission is expecting petitions to be filed demanding the election be voided.
Ten people have died and at least 577 have been wounded in politically related violence since late November, according to the Erawan Medical Centre, which monitors Bangkok hospitals. [AlJazeera]
