Candidates begin registering in complicated process to select Thailand’s new Senate

By JINTAMAS SAKSORNCHAI
Associated Press

BANGKOK (AP) — Thailand has officially begun the selection of new set of senators, a process that has become part of the ongoing war between progressive forces hoping for democratic political reforms and conservatives seeking to keep the status quo. Hopeful candidates headed to district offices across the country on Monday to compete for one of the 200 seats in Parliament’s upper house. The power of the Senate was dramatically demonstrated when it blocked the progressive party that won the most seats in last year’s election from forming a new government. The three-stage selection process is so complicated and unclear that it has drawn criticism that it was deliberately designed to discourage public participation.