Thaksin served out his full term as

Thaksin served out his full term as prime minister, and then, in the regularly scheduled elections in 2005, his Thai Rak Thai party won 375 out of 500 parliamentary seats, a crushing defeat for its main rival, the Democratic Party. Thaksin started his second term as the most powerful elected official in Thai history. “He did the proper studies and sent the right message to the rural voters,” Pichai Chuensuksawadi, editor in chief of the English-language Bangkok Post, told me on a visit I made to Thailand a couple of years ago. “Most important, he delivered [some improvements] right after the 2001 election. From there, his popularity increased and there was support even from the establishment. On the other side, he gutted the democratic processes.”