Bombing casts shadow over Bangkok by-election (News Feature)

By Peter Janssen Jul 26, 2010, 8:54 GMT

Bangkok - A bomb that killed one person and injured eight others Sunday put a damper on victory celebrations for the government candidate's victory in a Bangkok district by-election.

The explosion occurred across the street from the Central World shopping plaza that was looted and razed by protestors on May 19, marking a fiery end to their 69-day demonstration in the capital calling for new elections.

A 51-year-old man injured by the bomb died of his wounds in hospital Sunday night.

Authorities have yet to determine the reason for the attack or the perpetrators behind it.

'What's quite clear is that the intention was to cause a lot of injuries or deaths,' government spokesman Panitan Wattanayakorn said.

The location of the explosion, cause by a M67 grenade according to police, was significant. It was placed in a trash bin in front of a Big C shopping centre, owned by the group that also owns Central World. The protestors accuse the Central Group of being pro-government.

The prime shopping district was occupied by the United Front for Democracy against Dictatorship, better known as the red shirts, from April 3 to May 19 before being dispersed by government troops.

Their dispersal by the armed forces prompted a looting and arson rampage that left more than 30 buildings in flames. Altogether 90 people died in protest-related violence during April and May, including 11 soldiers and police and two foreign journalists.

A by-election on Sunday for Bangkok's sixth district was widely seen as a litmus test for the popularity of the government versus the red shirts in the aftermath of the April-May bloodshed.

The polls pitted Democrat candidate Panich Vikitsreth, a former deputy foreign minister, against Korkaew Pikulthong, an opposition politician and red-shirt leader who is in jail on terrorism charges since May 19.

According to preliminary results, Panich won 96,480 votes to Korkaew's 81,776, providing the government candidate with a comfortable but 'qualified' victory. Official results will not be known until Tuesday. Monday is a Buddhist holiday in Thailand.

'This will be seen by the red shirts as a qualified victory, because their candidate was campaigning from a prison cell and still managed to win more than 80,000 votes,' said Thitinan Pongsudhirak, a political scientist at Chulalongkorn University.

'It shows the red shirts have staying power. You would have expected the May violence to have boomeranged back on them.'

Sunday's bombing also showed that violence is still an option in Thailand's tinder box political scene.

Bangkok has been under emergency decree since April 7, when the protestors stormed Parliament.

Prime Minister Abhisit Vejjajiva has so far refused to lift the decree in the capital and 15 other provinces despite calls from human rights groups and political activists to do so.

Even former prime minister Anand Panyarachun, appointed by Abhisit to head the government's political reconciliation task force, last week joined the chorus urging an end to the decree, which allows authorities to make arrests without charges and provides immunity for their actions.

'We have made clear we intend to lift the emergency decree gradually once the situation returns to normalcy,' Panitan said.

Given Thailand's deep political divide, pitting the status quo of the military, royalists, old money and the Democrats - the oldest political party - against the red tide that is still largely directed by fugitive former premier Thaksin Shinawatra, a return to normalcy may take a long time.

Since the threat is still there, as demonstrated by the election results and bombing Sunday, a rethink of government strategy might be in order.

'This current strategy is leading to a suppression-violence spiral,' said opposition politician Chaturon Chaisaeng.

'The emergency decree discourages people who want to reorganize the movement to fight for democracy peacefully,' he said.