Rampant Vote Buying in Thailand

The Nation reports that politicians are employing new techniques for buying votes in the upcoming election.

The first is a pyramid scheme where high level canvassers recruit lower level canvassers who then recruit individual voters to vote for a particular party. The article does not specify which party is using this technique but it has the look and feel of Thaksin and his Thai Rak Thai party written all over it.

The second technique being used is having voters use their camera phone to take a picture of their ballot after they have marked it as proof they have voted for the candidate they were paid to vote for. So much for the concept of a secret ballot.

So much for democracy in Thailand