Pa Khlok candidates deny big party links

THALANG: Leaders of the two parties running in the Pa Khlok Tambon Administration Organization (OrBorTor) elections to be held on July 25 have denied links with major national parties.

The upcoming elections will be the first time that Pa Khlok residents will have an opportunity to vote directly for who they want as President. There are 40 candidates contesting 18 seats: 13 from the Pa Khlok Gao Na (Progress) party; 16 from Pa Khlok Pattana (Development) party; and 11 independent candidates.

Leading Gao Na is Panya Sumphaorat, 41, a former two-times Pa Khlok OrBorTor President, though each time for only two years as he was voted in to replace a President ousted by the council.

K. Panya today told the Gazette that he had heard rumors that a major national party is supporting one of the parties running in the Pa Khlok elections, but denied that it was his team.

His opposite number, Pattana leader Sa-ard Kongnam, 34, also denied rumors that his party has ties with a national party. “Villagers have seen some of the members in my team working with the Democrat Party before, so they think the Democrat Party is supporting us.

“Actually, we are not involved with any [national] party, it is just someone spreading rumors.”

K. Panya said that he believed big political parties should not be involved at grassroots level. “The big parties should not be involved in [local elections] because it will lead to a bad result for the [national] parties themselves.

“It will divide the local community and the villagers will not trust the local representatives of the national party,” he said.

Focusing on local issues, both K. Panya and K. Sa-ard have made protection of natural resources and the environment in Pa Khlok the main planks of their parties’ platforms.

K. Sa-ard said, “Pa Khlok now has problems with land encroachment and natural resources being destroyed. There should be good cooperation between the OrBorTor and the local community, that will help us be more effective [in solving these problems].”