Abhisit in pole position

Abhisit Vejjajiva is expected to be re-elected as Democrat Party leader tomorrow when the party holds a general assembly to elect a new board of party executives, a party source said.

The source said Mr Abhisit had gained at least 70% of the votes from party members who voted online from Nov 1-9, taking a comfortable lead over the other two contenders in the party leadership contest — former party deputy leader Alongkorn Ponlaboot, and former Democrat Phitsanulok MP Warong Dechgitvigrom.

Thailand’s oldest political party introduced a nationwide electronic voting system for party members on Nov 1 to help elect its new leader.

Although the results of the e-vote only serves as a pointer of each contender’s popularity, the outcome of the e-vote will be taken into account during the actual vote at the general assembly tomorrow.

The source also said that most party members believed that Mr Abhisit, who has been at the party’s helm for almost 14 years, still deserves to remain their leader and that no one else is more suited for the post than him at this stage.

However, the party members also expect Mr Abhisit to change his leadership style and be more decisive as there are many tough political tasks ahead, the source said.

Most importantly, Mr Abhisit will have to shoulder the responsibility of leading the party to victory and win a majority of House seats in the general election which is expected to take place in late February.

The Democrat Party has never been victorious in previous elections following the emergence of the now-defunct Thai Rak Thai Party led by Thaksin Shinawatra in 2001.

Even though Thai Rak Thai was later dissolved, several of its incarnations — the People Power and Pheu Thai parties — still won poll victories in subsequent elections.

Mr Abhisit became prime minister in December 2008 with the support of Buri Ram politician Newin Chidchob, who broke away from Thaksin.

Mr Newin co-founded the Bhumjaithai Party and lent his support to the Democrat Party. Bhumjaithai, together with “Friends of Newin” politicians, voted in the House to support Mr Abhisit to become prime minister.

However, the source admitted the Democrat Party still has a slim chance of victory in next year’s poll over its rival, Pheu Thai.

The Democrats may have to settle for second place in the poll with at least between 130-160 House seats.

Pheu Thai and Thai Raksa Chart will work side-by-side in the next poll to capture the most seats from the constituency and party-list systems, according to a Pheu Thai source.

Concerns have mounted within Pheu Thai that it might not capture any seat on the party list on account of the new electoral method.

Under the poll system, parties that win MP seats in the constituencies will not get MPs under the list system.

However, parties that lose in the constituencies will see their votes tallied up. If they have enough votes, they will earn party-list seats.

Pheu Thai’s poll strategy is to collaborate with Thai Raksa Chart, a party that has already been registered with the Election Commission for some time.

Thai Raksa Chart, which is likely to count Pheu Thai defectors among its members, will be suited for raking in the “loser votes”, which would translate into list seats.