Abhisit Vejjajiva

After the election, the winning Prime Minister may need Chonburi's Phalungchon Party coalition votes to form a new government which would bring added development funds to Pattaya and the region.

For the first time, both Yellow Shirts and Red Shirts will be protesting in Bangkok about the same time starting this Sunday, January 22. Following the military coup that ousted elected Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra in 2006, the Yellow Shirts took over the Thailand airports crippling tourism three years ago and now they plan a march near the Red Shirts protest site on Tuesday January 25. The Red Shirts fortified encampments last year in central Bangkok leading to horrific violence and the burning of many major shopping malls and stores and deaths. The Thailand government is resigning to allow new elections possibly next month so these pushes for power may be ongoing. However, if there is civil unrest, it is unlikely the current government led by productive Prime Minister Abhisit Vejjajiva will resign.

The rumor that Thaksin is dead may have been a factor in the current government's decision to dissolve Parliament and call for new elections, including the prime minister spot, as the realization of the added anarchy and added bloodshed which would ensue if he died and when he dies. See more of the story in the May 7 issue of the Pattaya Times newspaper. Click this headline to read more updates here.

Prime Minister Abhisit Vejjajiva has stressed the government would count more on the agricultural and food processing sectors than the industrial sector for the country’s economic development.