Violence looms large for Thai Muslims at polls

Pattani (Thailand), Apr 2: The failure of embattled Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra to quell separatist unrest in Muslim-majority southern Thailand could cost him dearly in today's election.

Many blame Thaksin personally for the violence, which erupted in January 2004 and has so far killed more than 1,000 people in the predominantly Buddhist nation's southernmost tip, where 80 percent of people are Muslim.

Now, that resentment combined with an opposition boycott of the poll could bring about constitutional chaos if unopposed candidates from Thaksin's party fail to win the minimum 20 percent of eligible votes needed to notch up victory.

Thai law requires that all 500 parliamentary seats are filled before a new government can be formed.

''The longer he is here, the worse the situation gets,'' said Ismail bin Ibrahim, an opposition MP in Pattani who, like his colleagues, is not contesting the election.

''The minute Thaksin comes, we have killings and violence.

And in this past year, it's been worse than ever,'' he told Reuters in a Pattani tea shop as wandering cattle vied with motorbikes for space on the streets behind him.

''We want to say, 'Get out, Thaksin'.'' The far south remains the biggest threat to the former telecoms tycoon, whose family sparked outrage among many Thais with their tax-free 1.9 billion dollars sale of their stake in the company he founded to Singapore's state investment arm.

But 1,200 km from the capital, voters are moved by outrage over another incident -- the infamous Tak Bai episode in 2004, in which more than 70 Muslim men died after being stacked like logs in army trucks after a protest.

''The three southernmost provinces -- Pattani, Yala, Narathiwat -- can't accept Thaksin now. At Tak Bai, it looked terrible for the government,'' said bin Ibrahim. ''The three provinces cannot choose him.'' At a tea shop across town, where goats meander through the streets contentedly grazing on greenery, Muslims vowed to head to the polls, if only to register an anti-Thaksin ''absention'' vote.

''We will go to vote, but many are telling us to vote 'no vote','' said Loh, a government official.

''The problem with Thaksin remains the same. He has been effective in helping a lot of the country. But the fact remains that the violence in the south hasn't been solved. The government has been completely ineffective in solving this.'' Others were more blunt, saying the only solution was for the army to step in, as it has done many times before in Thailand's 74 years of on-off democracy.

''I'm not going to vote,'' said Khru, a provincial bureaucrat.

''This is a dirty election and I will not waste my pure vote in a dirty process.

''I want the military to topple the government and return the power to the people. We never had divisions between Muslims and Buddhists like this before. But after years of Thaksin, there is a feeling that we have to be wary of each other.''

REUTERS