Chart Pattana picks Phuket candidates

PHUKET TOWN: The Chart Pattana Party has finally chosen its candidates for Phuket’s two parliamentary seats in the coming general election. Samkhan Saengfai, managing director of PB Holdings, is to stand for Voting District 1, which covers Phuket Town apart from Tambon Rassada and Tambon Koh Kaew. K. Samkhan, Gazette readers may recall, was the man who tried to launch Phuket’s first public bus service but finally had to admit defeat after fuel prices soared. Running for Chart Pattana in District 2, which covers the rest of the island, will be Raewoot Jindapon. K. Raewoot was the leader of a demonstration in 1986 against the opening of a tantalum factory in Phuket. The demonstration got out of hand, resulting in the factory being burned down. Windows in the Phuket Merlin Hotel were also smashed, and the lobby was trashed. K. Raewoot has run for election to Parliament twice before, the last time as a candidate for the New Aspiration Party of Gen Chavalit Yongchaiyudh. In both elections – in 1995 and 1996 – he was defeated by Phuket’s current MP, the Democrats’ Anchalee Vanich-Tepabutr. After the election, Thailand will have a lower house made up of MPs elected in local constituencies plus others chosen from political party lists. K. Anchalee will be on the Democrats’ party list. So far, no other party has named anyone from Phuket to its list.