Thai parties tap nationalist mood as Cambodia clashes roil rural voters

(Reuters)

KANTHARALAK, Thailand, Jan 28 – Thai lawmaker Phumin Leethiraprasert has switched party allegiances in his re-election campaign for a February 8 poll, aiming to show voters he can make tough decisions to help border communities scarred by clashes with neighbouring Cambodia.

“I am not running for Pheu Thai this time around because of the border conflict,” said Phumin, 62, referring to the party of billionaire former premier Thaksin Shinawatra that dominated swathes of Thailand’s mainly agrarian northeast for decades.

Nationalist sentiment has surged across Southeast Asia’s second largest economy after a perception that the Pheu Thai-led administration’s handling of a border crisis led to the worst fighting with Cambodia in decades, killing 149 people.

“Bombs hit our homes, and our people died,” the former doctor, who has forged new ties with one of the political parties racing to harness the nationalist fervour in the final stretch of the campaign, told a small crowd at a rally.

Voters angered by the damage in his district of Kantharalak had urged Phumin to defect, he said last week.

So he is now running as a candidate of the Kla Tham Party, an ally of the ruling Bhumjaithai, which took power after the border row led to the removal of Thaksin’s daughter Paetongtarn Shinawatra, who was then prime minister.