Forget the political posturing of People Power Party spokesmen from Thaksin Shinawatra’s former Thai Rak Thai Party; ignore the false impressions created by simplistic analysis of the number of seats won by the PPP in the December 23 General Election – many by an exceedingly narrow margin.

After more than a year of political upheaval in Thailand, the pro-Thaksin party is spending this week negotiating with smaller parties to obtain enough seats to form a coalition government. Nevertheless, the facts are that more Thais cast their party-list ballots (a decisive factor in who should form the next government) for the rival Democrat Party, and significantly more cast their constituency ballots against the PPP.

These facts question the legitimacy of PPP Leader Samak Sundaravej’s assertion that he has an overwhelming mandate to form the next government.

– Extracted from James R. Klein, “Thaksin Was Rejected by the Thai Majority“, Asia Sentinel, 2 January 2008. Thanks to Mike for drawing this provocative article to New Mandala‘s attention.