Source:
https://scmp.com/article/732573/restoring-voter-trust-way-out-crisis

Restoring voter trust a way out of the crisis

Thai Prime Minister Abhisit Vejjajiva will dissolve parliament during the first quarter of 2011, and he has already carefully planned his election campaign, according to a member of the Democrat Party. This news may indeed not come as a surprise. Abhisit said last month: 'Yes, it is possible early next year. I have said this several times.'

There are indications that Abhisit is serious about an election. Early in November, Deputy Prime Minister Sanan Kachornprasart travelled to the Norwegian capital to meet former prime minister Thaksin Shinawatra to discuss a variety of political issues including the election.

Meanwhile, a source within the Peua Thai party disclosed that the party's chairman, General Chavalit Yongchaiyudh and some of the executive members met Thaksin on November 20 in Beijing to lay out election strategies.

Surely, such high-profile meetings cannot be a coincidence.

While these self-proclaimed envoys have been busy conducting a brand of shuttle diplomacy between the two opposing political parties, a more critical issue seems to have been left unattended. The concentration is on the obvious conundrums: who will win and how to undermine opponents. But any election will become meaningless if trust and faith among voters in the election are not restored.

The military coup of September 2006 served no purpose but to blaspheme Thailand's electoral process. The coup-makers might have claimed to be saving Thailand from corrupt politicians. They saw Thaksin as a major hindrance to Thai democracy. But staging a military coup did not contribute to the country's ongoing democratisation either. Eliminating political enemies in this way only reduced the legality of the electoral process.

Yet, the coup was not the only extra-constitutional device responsible for the public's loss of faith in elections. In 2008, in an attempt to unseat a series of Thaksin-backed governments, the yellow-shirt movement launched months-long street demonstrations that culminated in the seizure of Suvarnabhumi Airport. It was the intervention of the Constitutional Court that put an end to the elected government of the late Samak Sundaravej, and its successive regime.

That intervention was perceived by pro-democracy supporters as another brazen attempt to discredit the electoral process. It also raises the pertinent question of whether Thailand's judicial system had become a political instrument.

Rebuilding trust and faith in the electoral system is a part of finding a solution to the protracted political crisis. If the Abhisit government is genuine about bringing the political conflict to an end, it must reassure voters that the results will be respected, regardless of which political party comes out on top. Simultaneously, the government will need to convince its backers in high places not to resort to unconstitutional means even if they find the election results unpalatable.

Pavin Chachavalpongpun is a visiting research fellow at the Asean Studies Centre, Institute of Southeast Asian Studies, Singapore. Copyright: OpinionAsia