Abhisit-Thakshin rivalry goes to elections in Thailand today

Over 1,50,000 police personnel are being deployed at polling stations across the country to make sure the elections are peaceful.

In his last minute appeal,Abhisit called on voters nationwide to turn out in force to decide the country’s direction,and said he was confident his party would win the election to earn the legitimacy to form the next government.

“Thai people want the country to move forward after the election without any more political conflicts and social division problems,” he said,while also calling on all parties to accept the election’s results.

The general elections come a little more than a year after political clashes in the Thai capital claimed 90 lives and injured hundreds of others.

However,pre-election opinion polls showed Yingluck Shinawatra,though a political novice,and viewed by many as a proxy to her ousted brother,emerging as the front runner.

If she wins,Yingluck would be Thailand’s first female prime minister.

Ousted in a 2006 coup,Thakshin now lives in Dubai in a self-imposed exile to escape a jail term for corruption.

“Please give a chance to this woman to bring reconciliation back to this country,” Yingluck told a huge crowd on Friday night at a campaign rally.