New Mandala

On the first day of Christmas my true love sent to me a coup against my arch enemy.
On the second day of Christmas my true love sent to me a party dissolution and a coup against my arch enemy.
On the third day of Christmas my true love sent to me a brand new constitution, a [...]

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Events in Thailand this week have concentrated minds on the possibility of a coup, once again, unseating a democratically-elected government.  With the sieges of Suvarnaphumi and Don Muang airports continuing, the judiciary readying its claws to dismember the institutional basis of the government, and the Prime Minister dashing around the country unable to use his [...]

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Whoever is launching the attacks on the rallies held by the People’s Alliance for (Sufficiency) Democracy in Bangkok is doing the PA(S)D a big favour. With their cause looking increasingly tawdry and discredited, the most the PA(S)D can hope for is that their credibility will be boosted by the impression that they are standing firm [...]

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New Mandala readers scouting for some more substantial weekend reading may want to have a look at these two new papers from one of our regular contributors, Michael H. Nelson.
The two new papers are:

“Thaksin’s 2005 Electoral Triumph:Looking Back From the Election in 2007”, published by the Southeast Asia Research Centre at the City University of Hong [...]

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Last Friday I spoke at the 2007 Thai Update hosted by the National Thai Studies Centre at the ANU (update-program.pdf). Over the next few days I will post some notes about some of the key presentations. But for now, you will have to make do with the text of my presentation! Regular readers should find [...]

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Yesterday I attended the National Thai Studies Centre’s sufficiency “discussion” on the current political situation in Thailand. As noted in previous posts the panellists for the discussion were the members of a Thai government public relations team coordinated by the Prime Minister’s Office. There were four speakers – Surat Horachaikul, Charas Suwanmala, , Somchai Homlaor [...]

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New Mandala readers who are looking to understand the local dynamics of the 2007 constitution referendum will find much value in Michael H. Nelson’s series of posts from Chachoengsao.  The posts start with the first efforts to generate interest in the vote and go right through to the final moments when the results were tallied up.  The posts include dozens of [...]

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This post is part of New Mandala’s month-long feature on Thailand’s constitution referendum.  The referendum was held on 19 August 2007. �
Compared to the weeks immediately before the voting in elections or, in this case, the referendum, polling day usually is a rather boring affair. It mainly concerns the processes in polling stations, which may be located [...]

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Here is a statement from the Asian Human Rights Commission following the referendum in Thailand:
THAILAND: A long road back to human rights and the rule of law
Predictably, the military junta in Thailand has coerced, threatened, bought and cajoled part of the electorate into passing its 309-article constitution on August 19. From results to date, just over 14 [...]

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Political analyst Michael H. Nelson has spent the last few weeks observing the constitution referendum in Chachoengsao province.  Here on New Mandala, he will be providing more coverage and pictures from voting day.  For now he has provided this short update for our series on the 2007 referendum.
He writes:
I stayed at the Provincial Election Commission (PEC) [...]

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