Election Day

now for a very sketchy intro to Thai politics.

today is election day. on the personal "how does this affect me?" level, the country is dry from 6pm saturday until midnight tonight. in other words, no alcohol can be purchased (there are signs roping off the liquor section of my local market).

on the streets, i have been inundated with the upcoming election by a flood of campaign posters. they are displayed along the sidewalks, often one poster ever few feet. the posters themselves are very interesting. i am sure my reception of them is largely shaded by the fact that i cannot understand the words. they present the candidate's form prominently, almost life size. they remind me a great deal of real estate agent ads back home.

A very little taste of the campaign posters along the sidewalk.

in addition to the candidate, each poster has a party number. apparently, on the ballot you vote for a party by their number. so far i have seen numbers up to 33- wow.

my understanding of the actual political issues is much hazier than my observations of the advertising. these are the elections that were agreed upon at the end of the tensions between red shirts and yellow shirts last may. i know that Thaksin's sister is running for prime minister for party 1. Thaksin is the former prime minister living outside Thailand since being ousted in a bloodless coup in 2006 (he faces corruption charges here). despite the large number of parties on the ballot, the race is basically between two parties- the current ruling party and Thaksin's opposition party. well, i won't try to say anything else about that, since i am not confident enough in my own understanding of the situation. there is some concern as to the reaction of the election from the losing party. so, i'll try to update again soon.

*update: Thaksin's sister Yingluck Shinawatra won yesterday's election. now we just wait and see what happens next...*