By Thai Newsroom Reporters
DE FACTO PHEU THAI BOSS Thaksin Shinawatra was quietly double-crossed in Wednesday’s final stage of a senatorial election in which he saw his brother-in-law/former prime minister Somchai Wongsawat helplessly outvoted, according to a noted academic.
Thanaporn Sriyakul of Mahanakorn University of Technology remarked that Thaksin was unexpectedly betrayed by senatorial contestants, secretly associated with the Pheu Thai, who had picked others in lieu of his close relative in a last-minute twist of the recent political phenomenon.
Thanaporn said Thaksin had apparently used the “incompetent” wheeler-dealers who had utterly failed to manipulate an electoral victory for Somchai in the national or final tier of the complicated contests in which one was given votes for senator from among fellow candidates in lieu of constituents.
The final tier of the senatorial election consisted of the first round which featured same-category votes and the second round which called for cross-category votes in which Thaksin’s brother-in-law was outvoted.
“How could the likes of a former prime minister closely attached to the Big Boss be outvoted for senator in any possible way other than a sheer double-crossing shenanigan?”, the outspoken Thanaporn put it in reference to Somchai and Thaksin but stopped short of elaborating.
The Mahanakorn academic confirmed that Somchai, who had smoothly passed the district and provincial tiers of the triple-tiered election, had been originally destined by the de facto Pheu Thai boss to contest for senator and be named Senate speaker whilst the Pheu Thai remains as core of the current coalition government and currently commands 141 lawmakers in the House of Representatives.
Thanaporn pointed out that the former prime minister who shares the home province of Chiang Mai with the de facto Pheu Thai boss had been denied adequate votes for senator by many of the Pheu Thai-connected “puppet” candidates in the national or final tier of the triple-tiered race to parliament.
Meanwhile, many of the total 200 senators-designate are more or less associated with the Bhumjaithai under de facto party boss Newin Chidchob, albeit in hush-hush, behind-the-scenes fashion, Thanaporn concluded.
The second largest coalition partner would manage to take control of a large number of newly-elected senators who were officially reported to represent nearly every one of the 20 given categories of profession which they may currently hold or previously have held for a living.
Those politically-associated candidates had apparently taken legal loopholes to the extent that each may have filed a certain category which may not have been the major source of their regular income.
Many of the winning candidates had undoubtedly kept their hush-hush connections with Thaksin’s or Newin’s camp a secret from the Election Commission otherwise they would have been disqualified by law in the first place, Thanaporn pointed out.
No senatorial contenders are legally allowed to be practically associated either directly or indirectly with any political party or currently work as government officials or employees of state firms.
Now that the Bhumjaithai has secured most seats in the Senate with the probability of its highest post being effortlessly grabbed by former assistant army chief-turned-senator Kriangkrai Srirak, allegedly connected with Newin’s camp, Thaksin would likely have difficulties steering the Pheu Thai-led coalition government behind the scenes or smoothly dealing with “independent” agencies such as the Constitutional Court, the Election Commission and the National Anti-Corruption Commission, all future members of whom are to be named by the newly-elected senators, Thanaporn forecast.
Given a united force of many newly-elected senators at hush-hush command, the ultra-conservative Bhumjaithai could probably act as a bargaining chip for elements of a previous military-led regime in power play behind the scenes with the de facto Pheu Thai boss, he said.
CAPTIONS:
Top and Front Page: De facto Pheu Thai boss Thaksin Shinawatra. Photos: Thai Rath
First insert: Academic Thanaporn Sriyakul. Photo: Thai Rath
Second insert: De facto Bhumjaithai boss Newin Chidchob. Photo: Bhumjaithai.com
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