A Vote for Nostalgia

Thaksin Country: a People Power Party rally in northeastern Yasothon province

Agnes Dherbeys / Cosmos for TIME

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Crying for the Past
Yet much is riding on this election. Not only must it reintroduce a semblance of democracy after 15 months of flat-footed military rule, it must also restore the Thai people's faith in a political system that generated so much division and bitterness that the military was emboldened to send in its tanks. Sadly, restoring that faith is looking like a dim prospect. "This election is already well known for having almost every questionable, old politician from the bad old days of corrupt governments," commented the Bangkok Post in an editorial. Corruption appears rife. "We've had a lot of reports of vote-buying," says Montri Kiatkhamjorn, a senior officer for the Election Commission, the poll watchdog, in Isaan. "It seems like it's become the culture of this election already." Montri reckons "maybe 50%" of candidates are buying votes in the region, often using hard-to-track methods. A candidate might pay for a funeral or another important local ceremony, clear a gambler's debt to an underground bookie, or buy credit for a teenager's cell phone. One PPP canvasser claimed his rivals were handing out Viagra to elderly voters.

The PPP's best weapon is evidently Thaksin's name. Anyone attending the party's rallies could be forgiven for thinking that the deposed PM is running for office. A recent Samak rally in Yasothon province in Isaan attracts thousands of people, many of them trucked in from surrounding villages. A stall sells books and pamphlets attacking the former PM's political and military foes, plus a VCD featuring an emotional Thaksin called One Year Missing. "I cried when I watched it," says the old woman selling them. The two candidates whom Samak has come to support are all but forgotten. Instead, his speech is all about "Prime Minister Thaksin," as Samak still calls him. He suggests that if Thaksin returns to a military-ruled Thailand, he faces the same fate as Pakistan's ex-PM Benazir Bhutto, whose October homecoming was met by a suicide bombing that killed more than 140 people. Samak hails Thaksin's dynamism and business savvy, and accuses rivals of "exploiting the bond Isaan people have with him."

Yet his speech gets only polite applause. "Yasothon people are very hard to please," explains Sombat Phaopaeng, 31, an ice cream vendor doing a brisk trade at the rally on this sweltering morning. "They like Thai Rak Thai, they like Thaksin. But they don't like these particular candidates."

While the PPP plays the Thaksin card, the rival Democrats point to their record in ruling Thailand after two previous crises: the bloody military crackdown on democracy protesters in 1992, and the regionwide economic crash five years later. "We restored political calm and laid the ground for economic recovery," says Korn Chatikavanij, the party's deputy secretary general. "Our record in government is solid." Democrats are also banking on Abhisit Vejjajiva, 43, their fresh-faced, Oxford-educated leader. Abhisit is clearly Prime Ministerial material, but remains untested in high public office and is said to lack the common touch. Samak dismisses Abhisit as an "unripe mango," but comparative youth could be an advantage in a Cretaceous age.

Southern Thailand is a stronghold for the Democrats, but the northeast region of Isaan is a graveyard. There, Thaksin is a tough act to follow. In None Somboon village, his face still beams from sun-bleached posters left over from a previous election. "Most Prime Ministers never leave their air-conditioned offices," says rice farmer Boon Mithaowan, 49. "Thaksin promised to do things, then he did them." Thanks to him, says Boon, the local irrigation canal was dredged and a new road built through the village.