By Giles Ji Ungpakorn

April 12, 2011 — Red Thai Socialist — One year after Thailand’s military gunned down nearly 90 pro-democracy civilians in Bangkok and in the run-up to the promised first election since the 2006 coup, the military have been very active in increasing the obstacles to a free and fair election. They are seriously worried about the outcome of this election.

Naturally the Democrat Party government and its bosses in the army will not be stuffing ballot boxes or inflating the number of votes for the government. That would be too obvious and they would be quickly found out. But what they have been doing since the 2006 coup has been waging a war of attrition to gradually destroy Thaksin Shinawatra’s Thai Rak Thai Party and the Peua Thai Party, which is its new incarnation. The courts and the election commission have been used in a biased manner to destroy the chances of a Red Shirt election victory. Bribery and threats have also been used to get politicians to change sides. Added to this we have blanket censorship and the use of the lèse majesté law against government opponents. The military have also used bloody violence and threats.

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