Thailand: An early start to election campaign

The ongoing censure debate doesn’t just sound like an election campaign. It is an election campaign.

And that will be underlined today when the government of Prime Minister Abhisit Vejjajiva and the opposition Pheu Thai Party face off over the contentious issue of who “massacred” red-shirt protesters and who torched Central World and other buildings during the political turbulence last year.

Pheu Thai decided to squander one full day that could have been used to hammer home corruption charges, which had been sporadic at best after two days. Bringing the thorny issue of last year’s violence to the parliamentary floor only means Pheu Thai’s main aim is to reinforce the divided political landscape, believing it could play to its advantage in the next election.

The Nation