Special report: Crisis in Thailand

A Thai voter checks information of candidates at a polling station in Bangkok, capital of Thailand, April 19, 2006. (Photo: Xinhua)

    BANGKOK, April 19, (Xinhua) -- Thai voters go to the polls Wednesday to elect a new Senate as the kingdom still staggered with the April 2 snap elections which caused the prime minister Thaksin Shinawatra to bow out and failed to resolve the contradiction between the ruling party and the opposition.

    Forty-five million eligible voters in the country are expected to select 200 senators from among some 1,463 candidates. The number of senators from each province is based on population and they serve six-year terms.

    Earlier, a total of 1,477 candidates have applied to run for the Senate, but the Election Commission disqualified 14 of them at the last minute.

    Caretaker Prime Minister Thaksin cast his ballot last Wednesday near his Bangkok residence at Bang Plad constituency in the advance voting on April 13-14.

    Voters in many polling stations on Wednesday queued up to exercise their constitutional rights. The Election Commission (EC) estimated that the turnout would reach 75 percent. The turnout rate is even higher in northern part of the country such as ChiangMai and Chiang Rai.

    Foreigner observers from more than 20 countries worldwide will observe Wednesday's senatorial election in a number of northeastern and southern provinces. They are ready to compare the transparency of the voting process in Thailand with that in other countries.

    The Senate is empowered to remove corrupt officials and politicians and appoints members of independent bodies such as the Election Commission, the Constitutional Court. The only Senate election was held in 2000 as a product of the 1997 reformist constitution, ending a history in which the upper House was appointed by the government.

    Senate candidates are required by the constitution to be impartial and have no links with any political parties. They are also banned from campaigning except introducing themselves to the public in small pamphlets and by putting up small signboards.

    However, observers estimated at least half of the candidates for Wednesday's election were the spouses of politicians and government allies or civil servants with close ties to Thai Rak Thai (TRT) as Thaksin was believed to engineer a comeback by controlling both Houses.

    Political analyst worried that the Senate could end up stalled by the need for by-elections, just like the lower house, because all 200 senators would be unlikely to be produced in one run due to controversies. More than 70 by-elections were held in last Senate election.

    The new parliament is responsible for embarking on the process of constitutional reform, urged by the opposition to rein the powers of the prime minister and to ensure checks-and-balances in the government.

    This year's Senate election followed a controversial snap poll called by Thaksin to defuse the country's protracted street protests demanding the prime minister to resign over charges of corruption and abuse of power.

    Boycotted by the opposition and marred by a large number of abstention votes, the election resulted in Thaksin's stepping aside in honor of the unity and the stability for the country despite TRT 's winning of 56 percent of the ballots.

    It also failed to fill the 500 seats in the lower house, a prerequisite for the parliament to hold its first session.

    By-elections are scheduled to be staged on April 23 in 39 constituencies where the candidates failed to muster the minimum 20 percent of the popular votes.

    But the opposition was discontented with the result, warning Thaksin not to pull the string since the lower House was under the dominate control from his Thai Rak Thai party, a threat to the kingdom's political reforms.

    According to the EC, the unofficial result for Senate election is not expected until Thursday morning while partial returns may surface between 10 p.m.-11 p.m. local time on Wednesday. Enditem