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Published on March 4, 2008

Winning with more than 700,000 votes, she should be proud, given this was the highest tally nationwide though she spent only Bt1 million on her election campaign.

Looked at another way, why does the senator elected in Ranong warrant an equal vote in the upper house to Rosana, when the entire population of that province is only 500,000 and the number of eligible voters just 100,000?

Rosana's 700,000 votes are also remarkable, based on Bangkok's voter turnout ratio of only 40 per cent.

Many of my friends cited different reasons for not showing up at the polling booths on Sunday.

One said it was ridiculous for 4 million eligible voters to vote for a single senator. If the number of senators per province were in proportion to the number of citizens, it would make more sense for every voter to go to the polling booths.

Another friend's reason is even more interesting: she totally forgot that Sunday was the Senate election date.

A third friend reasoned that he was bored with politics: he doesn't believe that senators can do anything to screen the laws proposed by politicians.

They do not care that their voting rights will be terminated following their absence at the polling booth. Why should they care? If they show up at the next election, their voting rights will be reinstated.

Get well soon

Thanks to a phone call from the Board of Trade yesterday, we at The Nation learned that the chairman, Khun Pramon Sutivong, was hospitalised after a bypass operation last week.

Yes, the operation took place on the day that The Nation's reporter phoned him to ask for his comments on the impact on the business sector of ousted prime minister Thaksin Shinawatra's return.

Well, now we know that he did not mean to decline to comment. We sincerely hope that Khun Pramon is strong enough to leave hospital soon and become our regular source again.

achara_d@nationgroup.com

The Nation