therefore Thailand prepares to vote Nationwide elections on Sunday continue to be overshadowed by the country’s months-long border dispute with Cambodia. Election proceedings.
In short though Deadly armed conflict The deadliest fighting in decades between the two countries escalated in May last year on a disputed section of the Thai-Cambodia border, killing dozens and displacing hundreds of thousands.
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The conflict resulted in the overthrow of Thailand’s government Prime Minister Pyatongtarn Shinawatra – the daughter of billionaire populist leader Thaksin Shinawatra – before bringing Prime Minister Anutin Charnvirakul Into power in September.
Now, though the fighting has stopped, the conflict remains an emotional issue for Thais and a tool for Anutin to shore up his conservative Bhumjaithai party as a no-nonsense prime minister, unafraid to flex his country’s military muscle when necessary, analysts say.
“Anutin’s party is positioning itself as a party that is really willing to take the initiative in the border conflict,” said Nepon Jatusripitak, an expert on Thai politics at the ISEAS-Yusuf Ishak Institute in Singapore.
“This is the party that has taken the strongest stance on this issue and is the most radical,” Napon said of the recent military crackdown.
Anutin had good reason to focus his election campaign on the conflict with Cambodia. The fighting fueled nationalist sentiment in Thailand during two rounds of armed conflict in July and December, while the clashes also tarnished the reputation of Anutin’s rivals in Thai politics.
Chief among those who suffered on the political battlefield was former Thai Prime Minister Thaksin and his family’s power base, the popular Phew Thai Party.
Pheu Thai suffered a major blow to its popularity in June, when a phone call between its leader, then-Thai Prime Minister Pyatongtarn, and a strongman in Cambodian politics, Hun Sen, was made public.
In the June 15 call, Petongtarn referred to her father’s former friend Han Sen as “uncle” and promised to “take care” of the issue after the first clashes between Thai and Cambodian forces, according to Reuters news agency.
For factions in Thai politics and the Thai people, Patongtarn’s deference to Hun Sen was beyond acceptable behavior for a prime minister, especially as she appeared to criticize Thailand’s military, the main center of power in a nation of more than 70 million people.
Hun Sen later admitted to leaking the calls, claiming it was in the interest of “transparency”, but it led to the collapse of Petongtarn’s government. She was then ousted by the Constitutional Court at the end of August last year, paving the way for Anutin to be voted in as Thailand’s leader by parliament the following month.
Neil Loughlin, an expert in comparative politics at City St George’s, University of London, said the border conflict with Cambodia has given Thailand’s armed forces a major boost, “while popular discontent grows with the military’s involvement in politics and among conservative elites”.
When border fighting resumed in early December, Anutin’s government focused on its political message. A few days later he dissolved Parliament to prepare for elections.
“Bhumjaithai has leaned toward a patriotic, nationalist message,” said Japhet Quitzon, an associate fellow in the Southeast Asia Program at the Center for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS) in Washington, DC.
“In the face of ongoing tensions with Cambodia, Anutin himself has pledged to defend the country at a campaign rally. Should conflict flare up again, Thais will continue to defend territorial integrity,” he vowed.
‘War on Scam Army’
During the fighting, Thailand captured several disputed areas along the border and shelled a Cambodian casino complex near the border, which was claimed by the Cambodian military.
Bangkok later alleged that some casino complexes, which have ties to the Cambodian elite, were being used as hubs for online fraud – known as cyber scams – a major problem in the region, and that the Thai military has also waged a “war against the army of scams” in Cambodia.
The World Health Organization estimates 18 civilians died in Cambodia and 16 in Thailand, although media outlets put the total death toll closer to 149 before the two sides signed their most recent ceasefire in late December.
Although the fighting has stopped for now, it is having an impact on Thai politics, said Napon of the ISEAS-Yusuf Ishak Institute.
Pheu Thai is still reeling from leaked phone calls between Petongtarn and Hun Sen, while another Thai opposition group, the People’s Party, has temporarily pressured some long-standing positions demanding reforms to the military, Napon said.
“(The People’s Party) had promised to scrap conscription and cut the military budget, but the border conflict with Cambodia has pushed the military’s popularity to heights not seen in more than a decade since the 2014 coup,” Napon told Al Jazeera.
“His main selling point used to be military reform, but after the conflict that seems to be a liability,” Nepon added.
The party has now deflected criticism of the military as an institution to specific generals and turned its attention to reviving the economy, which is expected to grow just 1.8 percent this year, state-owned Krungthai Bank said.
In the past two weeks, that message seems to be hitting home, as the People’s Party once again leads the polls despite a different platform from 2023.
“It will be very different from the last election,” Napon said.
“Right now, there’s no military in the picture, so it’s really a battle between the old and the new,” he added.