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In Thailand, election campaigning has a real case of military fatigue
- As candidates prepare for the March 24 polls, even the Shinawatra-backed Pheu Chart Party is struggling to keep up with new campaign rules put in place by the junta-influenced Electoral Commission
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Why you can trust SCMP
As many as 10 parliamentary candidates from the Pheu Chart Party are named Thaksin and Yingluck – and it is hardly a coincidence.
Pheu Chart, a political franchise of the Pheu Thai Party backed by former prime minister Thaksin Shinawatra, found itself caught up in a whirlwind this week after its candidates changed their names to the names of the two Shinawatra siblings days before registrations for political candidates opened on February 4.
Jirarote Kiratisakworakul, a candidate from Phayao province in Thailand’s north, told local media he had changed his name to Thaksin Kiratisakworakul because he “found the Election Commission’s rules difficult for my campaign, so changing the name might make people remember me better”.
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This year, for the first time, candidates in different constituencies will run with different numbers even though they are from the same party. In previous elections, political parties would run nationally using a single number.
For example, in previous elections, party’s were assigned a number that applied on ballots nationwide. If Pheu Chart, for example, was assigned “No. 2”, all its candidates would also be designated with that number on the ballots across the country. It provided consistency and coherence and made it easier to voters to remember their preferred candidates.
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