February 6, 2005 - 10:00 AM

Thai PM seen winning landslide election

By Ed Cropley

BANGKOK (Reuters) - Telecoms tycoon-turned Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra is on his
way to another four-year term in what an exit poll said will be a historic second successive
landslide.

The exit poll, conducted jointly by six television channels and a Bangkok university, said on
Sunday Thaksin's Thai Rak Thai party would win 329 of the 400 constituency seats and 70 of
100 seats available in a party list system of proportional representation.

The result, if borne out in the final official tally, would give Thaksin a historic second landslide
victory and make him easily the strongest elected leader in Thai history.

One of the country's richest men, who swept to power in 2001 on a populist platform of free
health care and rural handouts, Thaksin is already the only elected prime minister in Thailand's
coup-prone history to finish a full term in office.

His party is now set to establish sole grip on power in a country previously accustomed only to
coalition government.

Official results from across the Southeast Asian nation will trickle in throughout the night and
the Election Commission expects to have a final tally by 11 a.m. (0400 GMT) on Monday.

The all-pervading influence of former police colonel Thaksin, unaffected by the December 26
tsunami which killed 5,300 people in Thailand or unrest in the Muslim south, has prompted critics
and civil rights groups to see him increasingly as a dictator.

He treats the charge with contempt.

"Where in the world is a single-party government called a dictatorship? What's wrong with it
when people have faith in me?" he told a Friday night rally marking the climax of his campaign.

"WE HAVE PLANS"

Looking relaxed and confident in a check shirt, Thaksin drove to vote in a BMW sports car
before telling reporters Thailand's 63 million people would enjoy strong and purposeful leadership
in his next term.

"It will be much better because we have strategies, we have plans and we will push them
forward," he said.

Turnout appeared quite heavy after the "Night of the Howling Dogs", the eve of the vote when
campaigners make door-to-door calls with last-minute inducements, often financial in a land
notorious for vote buying.

But in a modern twist to an age-old tradition, the Election Commission said anyone found
photographing their ballot with a camera phone -- to prove allegiance to their paymaster -- would
be arrested.

"This is a petty crime, for which they can face up to 10 days in jail or a 500 baht fine,"
commission spokesman Ekachai Warunprapa told a Bangkok radio station.

Democrat and opposition leader Banyat Bantadtan, casting his vote in his southern hometown
of Surat Thani, tried to keep his spirits up despite predictions his party would lose ground,
dropping from 128 seats to as little as 101.

"Judging from the fierce race this time, I think we are having the most fraud attempts in this
election," he told Channel 9 television.

Election officials said they had received only 146 allegations of fraud which were worth
following up.

TSUNAMI SURVIVORS TURN OUT

In Ban Namkhem, a southwestern fishing village levelled by the tsunami, voters hitched rides
on army trucks or squeezed into tiny wooden fishing boats to cast their ballot amid the rubble of
what was once their homes.

"There were 3,000 people registered here, but we don't know how many will come today
because we've no idea how many are dead or missing," said 38-year-old fisherman Praiyun
Jongkraijak, who lost his parents, home and boat in the disaster.

In the Muslim far south, where more than 500 people have died in 12 months of unresolved
unrest, 10,000 troops were deployed to ensure smooth voting.

Despite the violence, which has revived fears of the separatist insurgency that rocked the
three southernmost provinces of Pattani, Yala and Narathiwat in the 1970s and 1980s, local polls
say Thaksin candidates look likely to do well.

But some voters said they had lost faith in Thaksin, who has refused to apologise for incidents
such as the death in military custody of 78 Muslims arrested after protests in October in the tiny
village of Takbai.