Remember city burning, voters told Democrats attack UDD as polls favour Pheu Thai

The Democrat Party is focusing on reminding voters of last year's political violence in a bid to stem the Pheu Thai Party's fast-rising popularity.

Pheu Thai supporters in Samrong fresh market hold up their fingers to signify the party’s No.1 election code to a Democrat convoy led by Deputy Prime Minister Suthep Thaugsuban. PHOTOS BY SOMCHAI POOMLARD

Korbsak Sabhavasu, chief of the Democrat Party's strategy panel, said the party believed the majority of the public still have bitter memories of the unrest and the burning of Bangkok.
The Democrats are changing election campaign tactics to cut the ground from under Pheu Thai by reminding voters that key figures of the red shirt movement who are now running for the general election under the party's banner, are alleged to be involved.

The move comes after several polls have come out favouring Pheu Thai, indicating its popularity ratings are ahead of the Democrats and that Pheu Thai will win the general election.
The Bangkok Poll showed that Pheu Thai would win in 18 out of the 33 Bangkok constituencies while the Democrats would gain only six. The contests in the remaining constituencies are expected to be neck-and-neck. Mr Korbsak said the violence in April and May last year stemmed from the red shirt movement led by the United Front for Democracy against Dictatorship, which is aligned with Pheu Thai.
Mr Korbsak said many top figures of the red shirt UDD are now running for the election on Pheu Thai's party list and some of them are likely to be given cabinet portfolios if Pheu Thai wins the election and forms the government.
The public should be able to imagine what kind of government they would get, Mr Korbsak said.
He said the recent poll results have not discouraged the party as the general election is still a long way off.

Deputy Prime Minister Suthep Thaugsuban avoids eggs thrown at him during a campaign at Samrong Market in Samut Prakan.

"We are unfazed by the poll results because we believe in figures that will actually happen," he said.
"Four years ago, the city was not burned, Bangkok residents still had confidence in us," Mr Korbsak said. "Why should the voters forget the [burning] incident this time?"
He said he was well aware of how each polling agency conducted its polls ahead of the election and that they tended to randomly sample some target communities while ignoring those in the middle-class and working class.
He said the recent poll results were no different from those of the polls ahead of the 2007 election which also showed the Democrats would win only seven seats in Bangkok. But after the 2007 election, the party won 27 seats while the other three seats were won in a Bangkok by-election that followed.
But Mr Korbsak expected that the Democrats would win 24 seats in Bangkok in this election while the Pheu Thai Party would win nine seats given that the number of House seats in Bangkok has been reduced from 36 to 33 this time round.
The release of poll results will be banned in the last leg of the campaign, or one week ahead of the election.
"During this period, voters will have to decide who they will vote for and we believe we will get more public support than now," Mr Korbsak said. "Poll results are just false figures. The actual figures will be known on July 3."
Deputy Prime Minister and Democrat secretary-general Suthep Thaugsuban said that the party had received a positive response from voters after it met them and explained itself during campaigning.
Mr Suthep said no matter what the poll results, he was confident the Democrats would win the general election.
He predicted that the Democrat Party would beat Pheu Thai by at least five or six seats, but by no more than 10 seats. He added that it would come as no surprise if Pheu Thai romps home to victory in the North and the Northeast.
However, he believed the Democrats would score a sweeping victory in the South and win all the 53 seats.
Meanwhile, Prime Minister Abhisit Vejjajiva posted a comment on his Facebook page on Sunday defending his government's crackdown on red shirt protesters in April and May last year.
He said persistent efforts have been made to raise the issue of the 91 deaths to step up a hate campaign against him ahead of the general election.
Mr Abhisit said the red shirt protest last year was different from the one in 2009 in that there were mysterious armed groups who mingled freely among the protesters.
He said he will post more comments on Facebook to explain top red shirt figures could have prevented the deaths.
"But they opted for more deaths so they can press the charge of killing people against me," Mr Abhisit wrote.
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