“NONE OF THE ABOVE”

by MONITOR
IF yesterday's reports that Thailand's embattled prime minister Thaksin Shinawatra has agreed to stand down, despite having numerically won last Sunday's election, a new chapter in democracy may have been opened beyond Thailand itself. Opponents of the prime minister have been mounting large-scale peaceful protest demonstrations in Bangkok and other cities for over a month, alleging corruption in his government and family following the sale of Before the election Mr Shinawatra said he would resign if he obtained fewer than 50 per cent of the votes. In the event he got 57 per cent of the votes cast but has nonethless undertaken to resign, citing the need to maintain national unity, after some ten million people ticked the “no vote” box on their ballot papers, indicating support for the boycott of the poll proposed by opposition parties.
DISILLUSIONMENT
It is often argued that apathy over voting in Britain would be lessened if the ballot papers included a box for those wanting to register a “none of the above” protest. There would certainly be less debate about whether the reason for people's abstention was laziness or political disillusionment.
If the “none of the above” vote proved to be proportionately as large as it has done in Thailand perhaps political parties would be encouraged to give more careful thought to whether their policies and style really address the electorate's needs than they sometimes seem to do at the moment.