Comments on: Boycott Chiang Mai Mayoral Election over Climate Catastrophe?

By: Ricky Ward

Ricky Ward — Tue, 06 Oct 2009 05:05:10 +0000

And the winner is:

Tassanai Buranupakorn No 2 on the ballot with 24,384 votes from 64,871 voters being 61% of elibible voters (Bangkok Post Report 6/10/2009)

Unless a man arrested in possession of 24,000 baht and a list of eligible voters can be proven to be linked to the winner which would land both in jail and force a new election.

By: Ricky Ward

Ricky Ward — Sun, 04 Oct 2009 05:48:59 +0000

As the author of this BOYCOTT post I am not in disagreement with the comments from Justin & Alan, hence the question mark at the end of the heading.
One thing citizens can reasonably expect of the city’s leader is to show some leadership on important issues.
The candidates were given the background information, witnessed two public displays on the issue and yet failed to grasp the opportunity to bring more of the community onside on the issue.
Some months ago I discussed with my physician the problems of smoke and air pollution, the effects of which he sees daily in his clinic.
A comment he made was along the lines that “The Mayor just sits on her hands” rather than giving leadership.
My feeling is that the people of Thailand crave leadership which explains much of the affection for ousted leader Khun Thaksin.

From tomorrow, when the election result is announced, we must redouble our efforts to have Chiang Mai and its local government to come out fighting Global Warming.

By: Administrator

Administrator — Fri, 02 Oct 2009 09:17:26 +0000

You can find out more about the Mayoral candidates here:

Chiang Mai Mayoral Candidates 2009 Information - Thai Language

Chiang Mai Mayoral Candidates 2009 Information - English Language

By: Alan Bull

Alan Bull — Thu, 01 Oct 2009 11:53:50 +0000

Firstly my thoughts go out to all those affected by the floods in the Philippines and from the earthquake and resulting tsunami in the Asia Pacific region, especially Indonesia and Samoa.

I am in agreement with Justin here, I feel people shouldn’t simply boycott the Mayoral election outright.

Unfortunately the candidates do not seem to see climate change as an important campaign winner but that is not to say that they simply don’t care.

As with all elections, they are simply talking about the things people want to hear, to encourage votes.

It is in my opinion that the vast majority of Chiang Mai people do not know enough about climate change, and because of this they do not even consider the issue when evaluating candidates.

Environmental groups, campaigners, and organizations need to continue to raise people’s awareness about the devastating affects of climate change.

Once people realise the importance of acting now, the more pressure the voter will put on not only Mayoral candidates but on all the powers that be, who will then be forced to address these issues with intelligent, well thought out and considered policies with the help of other nations worldwide.

By: Justin Bonsey

Justin Bonsey — Thu, 01 Oct 2009 11:17:18 +0000

An interesting point, but the article is too dogmatic to take seriously. Censorship is common in Thailand; it definitely needs to be addressed, but there must be more productive ways of dealing with climate change than saying none of the mayoral candidates are worthy of election.