Don Muang voters chose an individual over a party : Pheu Thai
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The Pheu Thai strategic PR committee concluded on Monday that the party lost in the Don Muang by-election mainly because voters are attached to individual candidates rather than party's policies.
The strategic PR committee headed by Noppadol Pattama, a legal adviser to former prime minister Thaksin Shinawatra, also concluded that spokesmen for ministries under Pheu Thai control failed to inform the public of the ministries’ achievements.
On Sunday, the Pheu Thai candidate Yuranunt Pamornmontri was beaten by his Democrat rival Tankhun Jittitsara by about 2,000 votes.
The meeting concluded that most Don Muang voters did not take the party into account, considering the candidates individually and preferring Tankhun to Yuranunt.
While the former Pheu Thai MP for Don Muang Karun Hosakul gave his blessing to Yuranunt, the meeting concluded that voters who like Karun may not have had the same feelings for Yuranunt.
The committee believes that Pheu Thai’s past success in Don Muang was because of Karun, who won the hearts of Don Muang residents when he ran for District Council seat as a Chart Thai candidate before contesting a Bangkok Council seat as a Thai Rak Thai candidate. He became a Pheu Thai MP after winning the 2007 election.
The committee also believes that residents favoured Tankhun over Yuranunt because Tankhun has been working closely with local residents since the 2011 flooding.
Another reason for the candidate’s defeat might be that that Pheu Thai failed to clarify why Yuranunt resigned as a partylist MP to contest a constituency-based House seat. Moreover, Yuranunt had just 18 days to introduce himself to Don Muang voters.
Pheu Thai has recently been criticised over the rice-pledging scheme and the white-mask group has also emerged to attack the government. This, the committee said, might also affect decisions of Don Muang voters.
The strategic PR panel resolved to remind ministers in charge of ministries under control of the Pheu Thai to instruct their spokesmen to work harder in disseminating information about their work and to do away with doubts about alleged irregularities at their ministries.
