Only a year into his second term after a landslide victory in 2005, the Prime Minister of Thailand, Thaksin Shinawatra, has called a snap election that will determine whether he retains office. The trigger for the current opposition unrest and pressure on Shinawatra to resign stems from lingering suspicion his family failed to pay taxes after the sale of Thailand's biggest telecom company. Unfortunately for Shinawatra, the country's Corruption Commission has hinted as much in the past. With little effect.
But a cumulative catalogue of errors could change that. The premier's famed "Thaksinomics", aimed in the main at enriching the rural poor, his major support base, has also lost much of its sheen. Mishandling the bird flu crisis and a crackdown on an insurgency that led to the deaths of a thousand Muslims has not helped matters.
While the snap polls on Sunday are designed to demonstrate that the opposition has little backing, Shinawatra has few cards up his sleeve; barring the fact that the opposition is fractured, may not be able to convert the voter's unease into votes and ratings that show people's impatience at the disruption to their daily lives and the concomitant loss of business caused by the wave of opposition rallies.
