Pheu Thai promotes ‘animal sports’
Somsak Thepsutin, a key Pheu Thai Party figure, has pledged to promote traditional animal sports to draw more foreign tourists and stimulate the local economy.
Speaking before thousands of people in a rally in Nakhon Si Thammarat’s Chawang district on Tuesday, he said traditional animal fights should be widely promoted and turned into a soft power asset.
He said he and his staff had drafted a law on traditional animal races and fights which are recognised as local traditions and culture. If Pheu Thai wins the election by a landslide, it will incorporate bullfighting and cock fighting into a soft power development policy.
Mr Somsak said he personally enjoys bullfighting and cockfighting, which he finds more thrilling than football, adding these traditional animal fights can appeal to foreign tourists.
Pheu Thai heavyweights are said to grow more confident the party can win between 4-5 seats in the southern region.
Dr Warong in PM bid
Warong Dechgitvigrom, leader of the Thai Pakdee Party, launched his bid for the prime minister post in Phitsanulok, where he served as an MP three times before losing to a new candidate in the 2019 polls.
Addressing supporters at a rally in Muang district on Tuesday evening, Dr Warong said Phitsanulok was the first campaign stop because he wanted to ask people’s permission to represent them.
The Thai Pakdee leader promised to solve farmers’ problems by lowering fertiliser prices and relieving them of debts in three years, and reducing people’s cost of living by pushing down energy prices.
Dr Warong also stressed the party’s core policy of protecting the monarchy as the party’s key members took the stage criticising rival parties seeking to amend the lese majeste law.
Dr Warong, a former Democrat politician, shot to fame for his role in exposing the rice-pledging scheme scandal under the administration of Yingluck Shinawatra. He lost to a Future Forward candidate in the 2019 general election.
TST to tackle pollution
The Thai Sang Thai (TST) Party yesterday pledged to speed up regional efforts and implement both short-term and long-term solutions to combat air pollution.
TST deputy leader Supant Mongkol- suthree said tackling haze pollution required cooperation not only from all sectors in Thailand but also from neighbouring countries, and the issue was at the top of the party’s agenda.
He said he and TST leader Khunying Sudarat Keyuraphan met the Laos minister of agriculture and forestry recently to discuss measures to reduce sources of ultrafine dust pollution, which would be pursued if the TST forms a government.
Mr Supant, also the TST’s PM candidate, said the party would also look into open burning by farmers to clear land for harvesting and consider a ban on maize imports from farms that burn agricultural waste.
He also defended the party’s welfare benefit schemes which would require at least 1 trillion baht to implement.
UTN posters ‘destroyed’
More than 200 campaign billboards and posters of United Thai Nation (UTN) Party MP candidates in Ubon Ratchathani were damaged.
UTN representatives have now urged the national police chief to press charges against the vandals.
According to Witthaya Kaewparadai, a deputy UTN leader in charge of campaigning in the northeast, most of the UTN’s billboards and posters erected in the northeast provinces, not only in Ubon Ratchathani but also in Khon Kaen and Udon Thani, were destroyed, especially those which had Prime Minister Prayut Chan-o-cha’s face — as the party’s PM candidate — printed on them.