CHAPTER 4 VOTE-BUYING AND ELECTORAL CORRUPTION A long-recognised feature of the Thai political system is electoral fraud and vote-buying, practices which fit hand-in-glove with the patron-client social relationships of feudal Thai society. It is part and parcel of the cycle of corruption that sees politicians buy their seats in parliament and then use their government positions to raise the funds to pay their electoral debts, keep their electorates happy and build up a bank balance for the next election. Thus the question of electoral corruption was indirectly linked with the issue of the "unusually wealthy" and in the aftermath of the coup, the interim govern ment, and Anand in particular, set about trying to bring reform this age-old practice Attempts to minimise vote-buying and electoral fraud Thailand has a four-tiered system of electoral corruption. Power groups buy political parties: parties buy politicians and jao phor; the MPs and jao phor buy canvassers- particularly kamnan (tambon leaders) and puyaiban (village headmen) and the canvassers in turn buy/coerce/arrange votes. At the local level, vote canvassing activities can be subtle yet effective. For example, by word of mouth, a kamnan can let it be known that he favours a certain candidate; whoever helps and votes for this candidate is his friend, and whoever supports someone else is not his friend. Most rural people tend to take notice of such information because their puyaiban can help them with bureaucratic procedures attract public projects to their village. The puyaiban e helped a villager's son find a job, lent money so that his sick wife could have an urgent operation, or provided bail when he was arrested. The villager depends upon such people as a form of social security that the state does not otherwise provide Thus, when it comes to election time, the villager will vote for "the repre sentative of his representative in other words the candidate that his patron supports. He has little choice. The state actively discourages the formation of politically-orientated lobby groups such as farmers' unions, and voters have no direct say in local issues such as land rights, electricity supplies or road building. If he helps to elect an MP who has access to the top levels of power,