By Thai Newsroom Reporters
THE PHENOMENON IN WHICH former transport minister Atirat Ratanaset is running for MP under the People’s tickets in an outer constituency of Nakhon Ratchasima, better known as Korat, has prompted oohs and aahs in no small measures among prospective Isaan voters during the current runup to the Feb.8 election.
Given the fact that the reformist camp has never been part of the executive branch since they were originally named the Future Forward and then the Move Forward, Atirat is outstandingly viewed as the only People’s electoral candidate who has had ministerial experience. Given his several past years performing initially as deputy transport minister and then as transport minister in the times of ex-army chief-turned-coup leader-turned-prime minister Prayut Chan-o-cha. Atirat has rebranded himself with a personal campaign slogan bluntly saying “Not the Wrong Choice” apparently referring to his unanticipated, dumbfounding switch of parties from the ultra-conservative Palang Pracharath to the reformist People’s.
Remarkably, the Ratanaset are one of Korat’s “Big House” families whose members have already assumed significant positions in government ranging from local to provincial and national levels over the last few decades. To begin with, Atirat’s father/former deputy agriculture & cooperatives minister/veteran MP Virat Ratanaset who had been judged guilty by court of perpetrating graft over the construction of futsal stadiums in the provinces and sentenced to four and a half years in prison, which was pending due to his appeal lawsuit, had skipped from one party to another over the last few decades bringing along with him his spouse/Atirat’s mother, namely former MP Tasaneeya Ratanaset, and their three sons, namely Tavirat. Tatirat and Atirat, wherever his new camp may have been with the latest one being the Bhumjaithai under de facto party boss Newin Chidchob.
Both of Atirat’s brothers, Tavirat and Tatirat, are vying for MP in different constituencies of Korat under the Bhumjaithai banners whilst the former transport minister is unexpectedly contesting under the People’s tickets in Constituency 7 of the same Isaan province, the country’s second largest in terms of the total of constituencies after Bangkok.
Undoubtedly, many constituents could not help wondering since when Atirat had decidedly changed his political ideologies from ultra-conservatism such as the likes of the military-installed Palang Pracharath and Newin’s ultra-conservative camp to the reformism such as the likes of the reformist camp which had been dissolved by court twice in less than a decade.
Atirat himself had not given clear-cut explanations behind his polarised about-face and contended that he had taken utter liberty to make decisions of his own regardless of those of any of his family members, especially his party-skipping father.
Atirat’s mother Tasaneeya had been elected MP of Korat for four times until the 2023 election in the constituency where she was overwhelmingly defeated in the previous election by a relatively little-known Pheu Thai contestant, namely Piyanuch Yindeesuk, who is seeking re-election under the same banners against the People’s contender.
In the previous race for Korat, the then-Move Forward had won three out of a total 16 MP seats, all being inner constituencies, whilst the one in which Atirat is contesting geographically lies in far-off districts where partisan popularity and personal hypes could probably be outvoted by “ammunition” like many others throughout the country.
In political jargon, “ammunition” refers to vote-buying cash surreptitiously handed out from canvassers to constituents which could possibly amount to as much as 2,000 baht each. In many cases, the money could be literally funneled through the hands of local leaders ranging from village and subdistrict to provincial levels.
Meanwhile, in Korat’s Constituency 1, 2 and 3, the People’s is relentlessly competing against others to retain the MP seats which they had gotten in the previous election and it is up to anyone’s guess whether their renewed campaigns will finally bear fruit again.
The People’s contestants in those inner constituencies, namely Chat Supatravanich, Piyachart Rujipornvasin and Sutthasit Potthasak, are seeking re-election under the People’s tickets with unfaltering presumption that most constituents who had sent them to parliament will not change their minds in the face of mounting tussle with their challengers vying under the Bhumjaithai and Pheu Thai tickets. In the previous race for Korat, Thaksin’s camp won 12 MP seats whilst Newin’s camp secured only one.
CAPTION:
People’s contestant Atirat Ratanaset campaigning in Korat. Photos – Facebook
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