COMMENT | Orange blossoms in Chiang Mai: Field reflection on Thailand polls

COMMENT | Few were looking at Chiang Mai as a “hot” area in Thailand’s election yesterday.

They assumed that heavily-favoured Pheu Thai, Thaksin Shinawarta’s party, would win decisively. I decided to visit there irrespective, as my gut was telling me this would be where I would learn.

Pheu Thai’s campaign theme (and song) in the last stages of the campaign was “landslide”. What slid, however, was Pheu Thai performance. Even in Thaksin’s home village of Sankampaeng, his party lost.

Chiang Mai emerged as a swing zone, Move Forward’s front line...