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Thailand set for parliamentary poll
By AMBIKA AHUJA,Associated Press Writer AP - 2 hours 25 minutes ago
BANGKOK, Thailand - Authorities in Thailand stepped up security Saturday, a day before the country's first by-elections since a new government took power after sustained political unrest.
The Sunday polls will be a test of political strength for the ruling coalition of Prime Minister Abhisit Vejjajiva, head of the Democrat Party. Voters in 22 provinces will fill 29 parliamentary seats made vacant mostly by politicians disqualified from office.
A total of 83 candidates from 13 political parties are on the ballots, said Election Commissioner Praphan Naikowit.
Abhisit was voted prime minister last month by a thin majority in Parliament after a court finding of electoral fraud led to the dissolution of three parties in the previous government coalition, which was packed with allies of former Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra.
Thaksin was ousted by a military coup in 2006 after being accused of corruption and abuse of power. Yet he remains the country's most influential politician, and his allies easily won a general election in December 2007 in which the Democrats placed second after a party set up to carry on Thaksin's political legacy.
Abhisit's government was voted in with a majority of 37 votes, with the support of 235 lawmakers in the 480-seat lower house of Parliament following months of sometimes violent protests against Thaksin's allies culminating in an eight-day blockade of Bangkok's airports in November.
Of the 29 seats at stake in Sunday's polls, 13 belonged to allies of Thaksin in the disbanded People's Power Party that led the previous government, and 16 seats were held by the Chart Thai party, which was also disbanded. Chart Thai had supported the pro-Thaksin alliance, but its lawmakers have now switched their allegiance to the Democrats.
Pundits in the local press expect the majority of the seats formerly held by Thaksin's allies to go to small parties and factions that now support Abhisit's government.
"The coalition is likely to retain its majority but the Democrat Party will have to rely more on small parties and factions whose allegiances are fickle," said Sukhum Nuansakul, a political scientist at Bangkok's Ramkhamhaeng University.
Thaksin's loyalists have been staging aggressive but sporadic protests against Abhisit's government, claiming it came to power illegitimately with the help of political pressure from the military.
Thousands of police will be stationed at polling stations and other places to provide security and prevent any attempt to obstruct the polls, said police Lt. Gen. Krisada Phankongchuen.
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