Thai No vote

Seems like Thaksin, leader of Thais Love Thai party has been slapped in the face, as predicted he lost the south where the dominating Muslim population really didn't like him putting three army divisions in order to counter a Muslim "insurgency", martial law apparently did not appeal to the constituents there.

More surprising is the turnout of voters in Bangkok, an amazing number of people came to the polls to fill out a blank vote, or rather a "No Vote" as it is known in Thailand.

"The number of abstentions is higher than expected, which may force Thaksin to be absent from a new government," Pongpan Apinyakul, a senior analyst at Kim Eng Securities, said.

Interesting to see if Thaksin will step down after this, his behaviour, while legal has been morally dubious changing laws to enable the sale of his own stakes in companies and avoiding taxes. Thaksins support in the North is still strong, mainly because he has "bought" the poor votes by extending goverment grants and subsidies, his politics in all has though been a disaster for Thailand. While countries such as Pakistan is seeign a boom of 8% GDP growth, the Thai growth was recently downgraded to three percent for 2006.

We will see what happens

Sincerely
Mr Silence Dogood