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Fading puppet

February 26th, 2007 by Andrew Walker · 3 Comments

The latest ABAC poll has Surayud’s popularity slipping to 34.8%.  Thaksin’s has risen to 28.8%. The poll was undertaken in Bangkok. I wonder what the figures would look like in Chiang Mai?

According to the Bangkok Post, Surayud has vowed to “fade away:”

“I will take a rest. For me, I am not going to get involved in politics. …  I received this job with a strong mandate from the people that I have to be here to serve (and to attend to) the political and security problems in Thailand. … So after this, if they can have an elected government from the people by the people, I think that’s it.”

Sorry, but I think I missed the mandate.

Tags: Surayud regime · Thailand · Thaksin

3 responses so far ↓

  • 1 nganadeeleg // Feb 26, 2007 at 7:31 pm

    A pointless poll really – Surayud is only there for a short term until the elections, and Thaksin has said many times that he is finished with politics.

  • 2 patiwat // Feb 27, 2007 at 6:43 am

    Never the less, the sharp drop is very worrying, and the timing is interesting.

    Right after the coup, he was at 60%. It dropped to 50% after the Chinese New Year bombings. And now it’s down to 35%. The timing suggests that the drop is due mostly to lack of confidence in his southern strategy, rather than economic mismanagement or his inability to pin any charges on Thaksin.

  • 3 Bangkok Pundit // Feb 27, 2007 at 9:21 pm

    Patiwat

    I know anti-Thaksin Bangkokians who have only bad thing to say about the capital controls. No they are a very small segment of the population. As you know there are so many little things and I think all these things add to the poll numbers. It is the Bangkok bombings and the southern insurgency which are the big ones though.

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