Election promises of Thailand's two main parties

Factbox: Election promises of Thailand's two main parties - Yahoo! News

 

The two main parties contesting Thailand's July 3 parliamentary election have proposed strikingly similar policies that focus heavily on winning over the rural poor, building up infrastructure and other populist measures.

Below are the election promises of the Democrats, who lead the outgoing government coalition, and the main opposition party, Puea Thai:

DEMOCRAT PARTY

Its "Moving Thailand Forward" pledges include:

- Raise daily minimum wage by 25 percent in two years from current levels of 159-221 baht ($5-7), depending on the region, and improve labor skills

- Give land title deeds to 250,000 farmers on state land

- Free universal quality medical treatment and childcare centers in every area

- Twelve electric train lines and high-speed rail links to the north, south and the eastern seaboard

- Extend subsidies on diesel and cooking gas prices, and provide some free electricity for low-income households

- Raise farm incomes by 25 percent through subsidies for fertilizer, with financial guarantees for farm production

- Two-year interest-free mortgages for first-home buyers

- Free education up to 18 years, soft education loans for 250,000 university students, $12 billion approved for a six-year education reform plan.

- Ease financial burden of 1 million small borrowers by extending state refinancing of personal debts owed to non-conventional creditors outside the banking system.

- Expand social safety net to include 25 million farmers and workers, covering illness, disability or death

- Give pension to those over 60 years of age; grant monthly living allowance for elderly people

- Double production of alternative energy, especially solar, turbine and bio-gas

- Expand national 3G broadband networks to link all districts in Thailand

- Anti-drug campaign.

- The Democrats and Puea Thai agree on indefinitely suspending plans for nuclear power in Thailand. Thailand's first nuclear plant had been scheduled for 2020 but plans were frozen after Japan's nuclear disaster.

PUEA THAI PARTY

Policy pledges include:

- Guarantee a uniform daily minimum wage of 300 baht ($10) throughout the country; this would rise to 1,000 baht by 2020.

- Raise salaries of civil servants and state workers

- Universal medical care; patients pay 30 baht ($0.97) per visit

- Credit cards for farmers to buy fertilizer and other things needed for production; rice intervention scheme with a guaranteed 15,000-20,000 baht per tonne for unmilled rice

- Three-year household debt moratorium for those with up to 500,000 baht in debt, focusing on teachers, farmers and civil servants; debt restructuring for those with more than 500,000 baht.

- Starting monthly salary of 15,000 baht ($500) for new university graduates, up from the current 10,640 baht.

- Free tablet computers for about 800,000 new school children each year. Puea Thai says these would cost 5,000 baht ($160) each and operate with open-source software.

- Corporate tax cut from 30 percent to 23 percent in first year, 20 percent in second year

- Tax cuts for buyers of first homes and first cars

- A flat 20 baht fare for all 10 mass transit rail lines in Bangkok

- Promote Bangkok's Suvarnabhumi airport as regional hub

- High-speed rail lines linking key cities in the north, northeast, east and upper south regions. Trains to link with outskirts of Bangkok and eastern tourism, industrial hubs

- Annual rural village development funds of between 300,000 and two million baht for each of Thailand's 73,000 villages.

- Monthly welfare allowance of 600 baht for elderly citizens of over 60, rising to 700 baht at 70, 800 baht at 80, and 1,000 baht at 90

- Free Wi-Fi and Internet connections in public places.

- Build 30-km (18-mile) anti-flooding levees to protect Bangkok and satellite towns from tide surges around the Gulf of Thailand

- Special administrative status for southern Muslim provinces

- Campaign to wipe out illicit drugs ($1 = 30.805 Thai Baht)

(Compiled by Martin Petty, Vithoon Amorn and Orathai Sriring; Editing by Alan Raybould)