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One of her campaign aides drowned in a Bangkok canal during a campaign stop while he was trying to pull off a stunt to draw voters' attention. Teerasak Sitanont, a 32-year-old former reporter, is survived by his pregnant wife and a two-year-old child.

Unfortunately, the pink-clad Leena seemed to be more concerned with herself. Waving a bundle of money in front of the face of Teerasak's wife as she sobbed over her husband's corpse, Leena gave a performance that wasn't much different from those on Thai soap operas: bad taste, bad acting.

Somebody needed to tell this delusional lady that a man died while working on the campaign trail with her, and she is going to need to do more now than think about herself.

Yes, there were promises of financing the unborn child's education, pocket money for the widow and so on, but Leena, a person who is not exactly the epitome of class and grace, needs to learn a thing or two about humility. Her reaction flew in the face of modesty, humility and the simple notion of human dignity. Such a reaction raises doubts as to whether she was qualified to run for Bangkok governor in the first place.

It's no secret that Leena's hopes of winning are slim and that she is running just to be in the public spotlight. She calls on the media to give equal space to all candidates, and the media has responded to her requests thus far. But Thursday's tragic incident left us wondering whether if by taking whatever is dished out to us we only encourage more stunts like this. There are a number of candidates who joined the campaign for the same reason as Leena. They may spice up the campaign, but don't expect us to give them as much space as serious candidates. Candidates should make policy statements their top priority. Otherwise the election campaign will not be taken seriously by voters.