March 03, 2008	Monday	Safar 24, 1429

BANGKOK: Thais voted on Sunday in Senate elections, but were allowed to cast ballots for only about half the seats, in one of the most controversial legacies of the recent military regime.

In seven hours of balloting, voters chose one senator to represent each of the country’s 76 provinces in the non-party election.

The other 74 senators have already been appointed by a commission set up last year by a new military-backed constitution.

Prime Minister Samak Sundaravej had to go to the polling station twice to successfully cast his ballot. Ballot papers identify the candidates only by numbers, not by names.

He told reporters he had forgotten his candidate’s number, so he left the polling station to look it up, then returned a few minutes later to cast his vote.

Samak has sharply criticised the Senate selection process as undemocratic and has vowed to amend the constitution so that all seats will be elected.

The provision to make the Senate only partially elected was one of the most contentious clauses in the constitution, which was approved in Thailand’s first-ever referendum last year.

Analysts widely view the appointed seats as a way for the generals and Thailand’s royalist elite to keep their thumb on the fully elected lower house, which is dominated by allies of ousted premier Thaksin Shinawatra.

Royalist generals toppled Thaksin in a coup in September 2006, but his allies swept back to power in elections late last year.

After the coup, a military-appointed court banned Thaksin from politics for five years, meaning he was not allowed to cast a ballot Sunday.

The appointed senators were chosen two weeks ago by a seven-member committee headed by the military-installed chief of the Constitutional Court.

Other committee members include top judges and anti-corruption officials.—AFP