Abhisit is 'exploiting the party's position'
Prime Minister Abhisit Vejjajiva is determined to "buy his way back into power" with a new raft of promises, say the Puea Thai Party and other critics.
Prime Minister Abhisit Vejjajiva, left, greets the public yesterday at Bangkok’s Chatuchak market where
he launched his Democrat Party’s election campaign.
PAWAT LAOPAISARNTAKSIN
One of Mr Abhisit's promises is to increase the daily minimum wage by 25% as part of a four-point policy package announced yesterday.
The announcement immediately met with crtiticism that he is exploiting his party's position in the government to gain an edge over its rivals in the coming election.
Samphan Techa-atik, a political lecturer at Khon Kaen University, said the Democrat Party's promises were tantamount to attempting to buy votes from voters.
Mr Abhisit must be more careful as this could be in breach of the election law, Mr Samphan said.
The prime minister announced his package at a soft launch of his ruling Democrat Party's election campaign yesterday.
He promised to increase the daily minimum wage by 25% within two years as he unveiled the package to a group of 200 young people who wanted to work for the party at Chatuchak weekend market. He also pledged to provide education loans for 250,000 university students, issue more community land titles that will benefit 250,000 farmers and to set up a 2,500-strong task force to help suppress drugs.
The prime minister said he had initiated several projects during his two years in office to help solve problems of the poor and those on lower incomes. Among them were the registration of motorcycle taxi drivers to provide them with social welfare and the increase in salaries for civil servants that will come into force in April.
While Mr Abhisit's announcement was well received by most people at the campaign launch, the opposition strongly criticised his plan.
Puea Thai Party spokesman Prompong Nopparit said other political parties that will compete in the poll would not mind the Democrat Party's campaign strategy if it played by the rule.
"We're concerned that the Democrats will spend taxpayers' money and use government officials for its election campaign," he said.
Mr Prompong believed the Democrat Party would do anything to win votes in the next election and that was why it had decided to launch the campaign as early as possible to assess its popularity before dissolving the lower house.
"If a lot of people show they favour this package, it is possible that the Democrat Party will dissolve the House very soon," Mr Prompong said.
"If not, it is possible that the party will prolong its stay in power until the end of this year before going to election." The Puea Thai spokesman expressed concern that the Democrat-led government would use money from the central budget to fund certain state projects to boost its popularity.
The prime minister could directly authorise payments from the central budget that is primarily designed for natural disaster relief purposes.
The Election Commission should watch closely how this budget was being spent during the lead-up to the general election, he said.
Mr Abhisit has said he would dissolve the House in April, which means an election must take place 45 to 60 days thereafter.
Chart Thai Pattana Party spokesman Watchara Kannikar said he was not surprised at the Democrats' early campaign launch. As one of the two biggest political parties, the Democrat Party needed to do something to attract voters from its rival Puea Thai.
Mr Watchara said what worried him most was how the Democrats would be able to find large amounts of money to support its package without misusing taxpayers' money.
Puea Thai MP Mingkwan Sangsuwan, who was chosen to lead the opposition's planned censure debate, said he would file a no-confidence motion against 10 cabinet ministers, including the prime minister, with house speaker Chai Chidchob tomorrow. A motion will be filed with senate speaker Prasobsook Boondej today to impeach the ministers targetted in the censure debate.
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