By Thai Newsroom Reporters
Phitsanulok – Former deputy House speaker/former MP Padipat Suntipada is lucidly anticipating all broken-hearted constituents in the capital district of the upper central province to “strike back” in the upcoming Sunday’s by-election being held to literally find somebody to replace him at parliament.
Now assisting the People’s candidate Natachanon Chanaburanasak in contesting for the first time in Constituency 1’s by-election for MP, Padipat is expecting by no small measure to see those broken-hearted constituents taking their turn with a shared conviction to “strike back” at the parties for which they may have voted in previous elections.
Tens of thousands of Pitsanulok’s urban voters, among millions of others nationwide, had grudgingly considered themselves the broken-hearted since the last couple of decades during which polarised division of society had intensified to the extent that some had offered to become Yellow Shirt protesters and others had turned out to be Red Shirt activists featuring mutual provocations, standoffs, brawls and violence in the streets of Bangkok and elsewhere.
Some voters of the upper central constituency had previously joined Yellow Shirt activism primarily directed against former coup-deposed prime minister/now de facto Pheu Thai boss Thaksin Shinawatra whilst others had literally fought for him and his fugitive sister/former coup-deposed prime minister Yingluck Shinawatra under Red Shirt movement.
But the mind-blowing phenomenon in which the anti-Thaksin parties, ranging from the Palang Pracharath and Ruam Thai Sang Chart to the Democrats, committed an historic about-face by jumping onto the bandwagon of Thaksin’s camp, both Yellow Shirt and Red Shirt elements throughout Pitsanulok’s capital district were ultimately dumbfounded, puzzled and disappointed, virtually bearing a common woe of the broken-hearted, according to the former deputy House speaker.
“Now all the constituents over here are simply having two choices to make on Sunday – either to endorse the old-time, complicated politics which would showcase hush-hush dealings and hidden agenda or to support a new era of straightforward politics,” Padipat put it.
Padipat, who was one of several members of the court-dissolved Move Forward’s former executive board who have been legally banned from assuming political positions at any levels for a 10-year period, pointed out that while one broken-hearted constituent may probably have hung onto an extreme end of a political spectrum against another over the last decades, both sides are today sharing a justice-loving sentiment and could practically manifest it whilst casting their vote on Sunday.
The former deputy House speaker virtually viewed Phitsanulok’s by-election as a prelude to the next general election which could possibly not be held until 2027 which would mark an end of a four-year term of the current House of Representatives.
Nevertheless, Padipat admitted that Natachanon’s novel campaign has been a strenuous challenge, given the unlikely circumstances under which all four candidates vying against one another in Pitsanulok’s Constituency 1 last year as well as all their former canvassers have joined hands with one another with a shared intent to help Pheu Thai contestant Jadet Jandra defeat the People’s candidate in the by-election.
That referred to last year’s contestants for MP running under the tickets of the Pheu Thai, Palang Pracharath, Ruam Thai Sang Chart and Democrats – all current coalition partners under elected premiership of Paetongtarn Shinawatra, daughter of the billionaire power player Thaksin.
Compared to Padipat who won the MP seat with some 40,000 votes, the Palang Pracharath, Pheu Thai, Ruam Thai Sang Chart and Democrat contestants got some 19,000 votes, 18,000 votes, 10,000 votes and 3,900 votes respectively.
Naresuan University, based in the upper central province, has recently conducted an opinion poll to find out 80% of a total of 1,109 respondents say they will vote for the People’s contestant whilst 19% say they will pick the Pheu Thai candidate in the preluding race.
CAPTIONS:
Top and Front Page: People’s Party candidate in Phitsanulok by-election Natachanon Chanaburanasak, centre, flanked by former deputy House speaker/former MP Padipat Suntipada, left.
Insert: Former deputy House speaker/former MP Padipat Suntipada campaigning in Phitsanulok. Both photos: Naewna
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